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THE RECITATION. 



The Recitation 

George Herbert Betts, Ph. D. 

Author of "The Mind and Its Education" 

Professor of Psychology, 
Cornell College, Mount Vernon, Iowa 



Mount Vernon, Iowa 

The Hawk-Eye Publishing Co . 

1910 






<^^% 



Copyright 1910 
By Geo. Herbert Betts 



Published November, 1910 



"THE HAWK-EVE press 



©ClA27r,r>86 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Foreword VII 

Introduction IX 

I. The Purposes of the Recitation 5 

Necessity of having a clear aim— Testing, teaching and 
drilling as aims— What is to be tested and how— How 
teaching differs from testing— Aims to be secured 
through teaching— The purpose and necessity of drill- 
In what branches most needed— Principles governing 
drill— Equal skill in all three aims needed by the 
teacher. 

II. The Method of the Recitation 25 

Method differs with aim sought— Two fundamental 
principles of method— The question and answer method 
—Inductive teaching— Topical method; use and abuse 
—The supplemental n^ethod- The written recitation. 

III. The Art of Questioning 45 

Importance of questioning- Freedom from the text 
book— The principle of unity— Clearness— Definiteness 
Other principles— Treatment of answers-Repeating 
answers. 

IV. Conditions Necessary to a Good Recitation 67 

Freedom from distractions— Distractions by the 
teacher; by the class; by the school; physical distract- 
ions-interest and enthusiasm on part of teacher and 
class— Well prepared lessons— High standards— A 
spirit of co-operation. 

V. The Assignment of the Lesson , 87 

Great importance of proper assignment— Teaching 
children to study— The teachers' preparation for as- 
signment—How to assign a lesson— The bird's-eye 
view; the analysis; the summary— Principles govern- 
ing the assignment. 



v^V 



FOREWORD. 

This little book is an outgrowth of a course of 
lectures given before various teachers' institutes 
and the author's own classes in education. The 
lectures are published at the earnest solicitation of 
a number of superintendents who desired that their 
teachers might have the matter in printed form. 

It is believed that the subject-matter is vital and 
concrete, for it deals with the work of the school 
room, and not with the theories of the educators. 
The attempt has been made to base all discussions 
on a good psychology and sound educational prin- 
ciples, but these have been assumed rather than 
presented. This fact will account for what may 
seem a somewhat dogmatic method of treatment of 
certain topics. The aim is to present immediate 
and concrete help in the actual problems of the 
real recitations in our present-day schools. There- 
fore the lectures contain much of illustration and 
little of theory. 

The ten questions given at the end of each chap- 
ter are of such nature that* their answers are to 
be sought chiefly in the daily recitations of the 
reader. They may be used simply as helps in read- 
ing the book and applying its teachings ; they will 
be found worth while for this purpose. The an- 
swers may also be required by the county superin- 
tendent as an evidence of careful professional read- 
ing upon which to base renewals of certificates. 

VII 



INTRODUCTION. 

The teacher has two great functions in the 
school ; one is that of organizing- and managing, the 
other, that of teaching the school. 

In the first capacity he forms the school into 
its proper divisions or classes, arranges the pro- 
gram of daily recitations and other exercises, pro- 
vides for calling and dismissing classes, passing 
into and out of the room, etc., and controls the 
conduct of the pupils ; that is. keeps order. 

The organization and management of the school 
is of the highest importance, and fundamental to 
everything else that goes on in the school. A large 
proportion of the teachers who are looked upon as 
unsuccessful fail at this point. Probably at least 
two out of three who lose their positions are 
dropped from inability to organize and manage a 
school. While all this is true, however, the" or- 
ganizing and managing of the school is wholly 
secondary; it exists only that the teaching may go 
on. Teaching is. after all, the primary thing in the 
school ; lacking good teaching, no amount of good 
management or organization can redeem the school. 

Teaching goes on chiefly in what we call the 
recitation. This is the teacher's point of contact 
wnth his pupils ; here he meets them face to face 
and mind to mind : here he succeeds or fails in his 
function of teaching. 

Failure in teaching is harder to measure than 



IX 



failure in organization and management. It quickly 
becomes noised abroad if the children are not well 
classified, or if the teacher cannot keep order. If 
the machinery of the school does not run smoothly, 
its creaking soon attracts public attention, and the 
skill of the teacher is at once called into question. 
But the teacher may be doing indififerent work in 
the recitation, and the class hardly be aware of it 
and the patrons know nothing about it. There is 
no definite measure for the amount of inspiration a 
teacher is giving daily to his pupils, and no foot- 
rule with which to test the worth of his instruction 
in the recitation. 

And it is this very fact that makes it so neces- 
sary that the teacher should study the principles 
of teaching as applied to the recitation. The dif- 
ficulty of accurately measuring failure in actual 
teaching tends to make us all careless at this point. 
Yet this is the very point above all others 
that is vital to the pupil. Inspiring teaching may 
compensate in large degree for poor management 
in the school, but nothing can make up to a pupil 
for dull and unskillful teaching. If the recitations 
are for him a failure, nothing else can make the 
school a success so far as he is concerned. 

The ultimate measure of a teacher, therefore, is 
the measure taken before his class, when he is con- 
ducting a recitation. 



THE RECITATION 



1 

THE PURPOSES OF THE RECITATION. 

Any discussion of the recitation should begin 
with its aims or purposes ; for upon aim or pur- 
pose everything else depends. For example, if you 
ask me the best method of conducting a recitation, 
I shall have to inquire before answering, whether 
your purpose in this recitation is to discover 
whether the pupils have prepared the work as- 
signed them, or to introduce the class to a new sub- 
ject, such as percentage in arithmetic, or to drill 
them upon the multiplication table. Each of these 
purposes would demand a different method in the 
recitation. Again, if your purpose is to show a 
class off before visitors, you will need to use a 
very different method from that you will employ 
if your aim is to encourage the class in self-ex- 
pression and independence in thinking. 

There are three great purposes to be accom- 
plished through the recitation : Testing, teaching 
and drilling. These three aims may all be accom- 
plished at times in the same recitation, may even 
alternate with each other in successive questions, 
but thev are nevertheless whollv distinct from each 



other, and require different methods for their ac- 
compHshment. The skillful teacher will have one 
or the other of these three aims before her either 
consciously or unconsciously at each moment of 
the recitation, and will know when she changes 
from one to the other and for what reason. Let 
us proceed to consider each of these aims some- 
what more in detail. 

I. TESTING AS AN AIM IN THE RECI- 
TATION. — Testing deals with ground already cov- 
ered, with matter already learned, or with powers 
already developed. It concerns itself with the old, 
instead of progressing into the new. It seeks to 
find out what the child knows or what he can do 
of that which he has already been over in his work. 
Of course every new lesson or task attempted is 
in some measure a test of all that have preceded 
it, but testing needs to be much more definite and 
specific than this. 

The testing discussed here must not be confused 
with what we sometimes call "tests," but really 
are examinations, given at more or less infrequent 
intervals. Testing may and should be carried on 
in the regular daily recitations by questions and 
answers either oral or written, bearing on matter 
previously assigned ; by discussions of topics of 
the lesson assigned ; or by requiring new work in- 
volving the knowledge or power gained in the past 

6 



work which is being tested. The following are 
some of the principal things which we should test 
in the recitation. 

1. The Preparation of the Lesson Assigned. — 
The preparation of every lesson assigned should 
be tested in some definite way. This is of the ut- 
most importance, especially in all elementary grades. 
We are all so constituted mentally that we have a 
tendency to grow careless in assigned tasks if 
their performance is not strictly required of us. 
No matter how careful may be the assignment of 
the lesson, and no matter how much the teacher 
may urge upon the class at the time of the assign- 
ment that they prepare the lesson well, the pupils 
must be held responsible for this preparation day 
by day without fail if we are to insure their mas- 
tery of it. 

Nor is it enough to inquire, "How many under- 
stand this lesson?" or "How many got all the ex- 
amples ?" It is the teacher's business to test thor- 
oughly for herself a pupil's mastery of the lesson 
or the knowledge or power required for the ex- 
amples, in some other definite amd concrete way. 
It will not suffice to take the pupil's judgment of 
his own preparation and mastery. 

2. The Pupil's Knowledge and His Methods 
of Study. — Entirely aside from the question of 
the preparation of the lesson assigned, the teacher 
must constantly test the pupil's knowledge in or- 



der that he may know how and what next to teach 
him. For no maxim of teaching is better estab- 
Hshed than that we should proceed from the known 
to the related unknown. And this is only another 
way of saying that we should build all new knowl- 
edge upon the foundation of all knowledge already 
mastered. 

To illustrate : Pupils must have a thorough mas- 
tery and ready knowledge of addition, subtraction, 
multiplication and division before we can proceed 
to teach them measurements or fractions. And 
without doubt much time is wasted in attempting 
to teach these subjects without a ready command of 
the fundamental operations. Further, pupils must 
know well both common and decimal fractions be- 
fore they can proceed to percentage. They must 
know and be able to recognize readily the different 
"parts of speech" before they can analyze sentences 
in grammar. 

But not less important than what the pupil knows 
is hozv he knoivs the thing. That is, what are his 
methods of study and learning. The pupil in a 
history class may be able to recite whole pages of 
the text almost verbatim but when questioned as 
to the meaning of the events and facts show very 
little knowledge about them. A student confessed 
to her teacher that she had committed her geometry 
lessons all to memory instead of reasoning them 
out. She could in this way satisfy a careless teacher 

8 



who did not take the trouble to inquire how she 
had prepared her lessons, but she knew little or 
no geometry. 

The mind has what may be called three different 
levels of learning. The first is the sensory level, 
represented by the phrase "in at one ear and out 
of the other." Everyone has experienced reading 
a page when the mind would wander and the eyes 
only follow the lines on down to the bottom of the 
page, nothing remaining as to the meaning of the 
text. It is easy to glance a lesson over just before 
reciting, having it stick to the memory only long 
enough to serve the purposes of the recitation. 
Things learned in this way are not permanently 
serviceable and really constitute no part of an edu- 
cation. 

The second level of the mind may be called the 
memory level. Alatter which enters the mind only 
to this depth may be retained for a considerable 
time but is little understood and hence of small 
value. All rules and definitions committed with- 
out knowing their meaning or seeing their applica- 
tion and all lessons learned merely to recite with- 
out a reasonable grasp of their meaning, sink only 
as deep as the memory level. 

The third and deepest level is that of the un- 
derstanding. Matter which sinks down through 
the sensory and memory levels, getting thoroughly 
into the understanding level, is not only remem- 



bered but is understood and applied, and there- 
fore becomes of real service in our education. Of 
course it is clear that the ideal in teaching should 
be to lead our pupils so to learn that most of what 
enters their memory shall also sink down into their 
understanding-. 

Therefore, in the recitation we should test not 
alone to see what the pupil knows, but to see how 
he knozvs it; not only to find out whether he can 
recite, but also what are his methods of learning. 
We should discover not only whether the facts 
learned have got into the memory, but whether they 
have sunk down into the understanding so that 
they can be used in the acquisition of further edu- 
cation. 

3. The Pupil's Points of Failure and the 
Cause Thereof. — Every teacher has been surprised 
many times to discover weak places in the pupil's 
work when everything had seemingly been thor- 
oughly learned. With the best teaching these weak 
places will occasionally occur. It is not less essen- 
tial to know these points of failure than to know 
the foundations of knowledge which the pupil has 
already mastered as described in the preceding 
paragraph. For these weak spots must be reme- 
died as we go along if the later work is to be suc- 
cessful. \'ery frequently classes are unable to 
proceed satisfactorily because of lack of thorough- 
ness in the foundation work which precedes. To 

10 



know where a pupil is failing is the first requisite 
if we are to help him remedy his weakness. 

But not only must the teacher know where the 
pupil is failing, but also the cause of his failure. 
Only when we know this can we intelligently apply 
the remedy for the failure. A physician friend of 
mine tells me that almost any quack can prescribe 
successfully for sickness if he has an expert at 
hand to diagnose the case and tell what is the mat- 
ter. This is the hardest part of a physician's work 
and requires the most skill. So it is with the 
teacher's work as well. If we are sure that a cer- 
tain boy is failing in his recitations because he is 
lazy, it is not so difficult to devise a remedy to fit 
the case. If we know that another is failing be- 
cause the work is too advanced for his preparation, 
we select a different remedy. But in every case we 
must first know the cause of failure if we hope to 
prescribe a remedy certain to produce a cure. 

Some teachers prescribe for poorly learned les- 
sons much after the patent medicine method. A 
recent advertisement of one particular nostrum 
promises the cure of any one. of thirty-seven dif- 
ferent diseases. Surely with such a remedy as this 
at hand there will be no need to diagnose a case 
of sickness to find out what is the matter. All we 
need to do is to take the regulation dose. And all 
patients will be treated just alike whatever their 
ailment. This is the quack doctor's method as it 

11 



is the quack teacher's. If the teacher is unskillful 
or lazy the remedy for poor recitations usually is, 
"Take the same lesson for tomorrow." There is 
even no attempt to discover the cause of failure 
and no thought put on the question of how best 
to remedy the failure and prevent its recurrence. 

II. TEACHING AS AN AIM IN RECITA- 
TION. — While testing- deals with the old, review- 
ing and fixing more firnTly that which we have al- 
ready learned, teaching using the old, leads on to 
the new. To educate means to lead out — to lead 
the child out from what he already has attained and 
mastered to new attainments and new mastery. 
This is accomplished through teaching. It is not 
enough, therefore, to employ the recitation as a 
time for testing the class. The recitation is also 
the teacher's opportunity to teach. Teaching as 
distinguished from testing becomes, therefore, one 
of the great aims of the recitation. 

Teaching should accomplish the following ob- 
jects in the recitation : 

I. Give the Child an Opportunity for Self- 
Expression. — "We learn to do by doing," pro- 
viding the doing is really ours; that is, providing 
the doing holds our interest and thought nothing 
will serve to clear up faulty thinking and partly 
mastered knowledge like attempting to express it. 
One really never fully knows a thing until he can 

12 



so express it that others are caused to know it also. 

Further, every person needs to cultivate the 
power of expression for its own sake. Expression 
consists not only of language, but the work of the 
hand in the various arts and handicrafts, and also 
of bodily poise and carriage, facial expression, ges- 
ture, laughter, and any other means which the mind 
has of making itself known to others. These vari- 
ous forms of expression are the only way we have 
of causing others to know what we think or feel. 
And the world cares very little how much we may 
know or how deeply we may feel if we have not 
the power to express our thoughts and emotions. 

The child should have, therefore, the fullest pos- 
sible opportunity in the recitation for as many of 
these different kinds of expression as are suitable 
to the work of the recitation. Not only must the 
teacher be careful not to monopolize the time of 
the class herself, but must even lead the children 
out, encouraging them to express in their own 
words or through their drawings and pictures, or 
through maps they make or through the things 
they construct with their hands^or in any other way 
possible, their own knowledge and thought. The 
timid child who shrinks from reciting or going to 
the blackboard to draw or write needs encourage- 
ment and teaching especially. The constant danger 
with all teachers is that of calling upon the un- 
usually quick and bright pupil who is ready to re- 

13 



cite, thus giving him more than his share of train- 
ing in expression and robbing thereby the more 
timid ones who need the practice. 

2. Give Help on Difficult Points. — A complaint 
frequently heard in some schools, and no doubt in 
some degree merited in all is, "Teacher will not 
help"; or, "Teacher does not explain." No mat- 
ter how excellent the work being done by the 
class or how skillful the Reaching, there will always 
be hard points in the lessons which need analysis 
or explanation. This should usually be done when 
the lesson is assigned. A teacher who knows both 
the subject-matter and the class thoroughly can 
estimate almost precisely where the class will have 
trouble with the lesson, or what important points 
will need especial emphasis. And in the explana- 
tion and elaboration of these points is one of the 
best opportunities for good teaching. The good 
teacher will help just enough, but not too much ; 
just enough so that the class will know how to go 
at work with the least loss of time and the greatest 
amount of energy ; not enough so that the lesson 
is already mastered for the class before they begin 
their study. 

But not only is it necessary to help the class on 
the hard points in assigning the lesson, but also 
in reciting it.' The alert teacher will in almost 
every recitation discover some points which the 
class have failed to understand or master fully. 

14 



It is the overlooking of such half mastered points 
as these that leaves weak places in the pupil's 
knowledge and brings trouble to him later on. 
These weak points left unstrengthened in the reci- 
tation are the lazy teacher's greatest reproach ; the 
occasion of the unskillful teacher's greatest bun- 
gling ; and the inexperienced teacher's greatest 
"danger points." 

3. Bring in New Points Supplementing the 
Text. — While the lesson of the text book should 
be followed in the main, and most of the time de- 
voted thereto, yet nearly every lesson gives the 
wide awake teacher opportunity to supplement the 
text with interesting material drawn from other 
sources. This rightly done lends life and interest 
to the recitation, broadens the child's knowledge, 
and increases his respect for the teacher. In this 
way many lessons in history, geography, literature 
— in fact, in nearly all the studies, can also have 
their application shown, and hence be made more 
real to the pupils. 

4. Inspire the Pupils to Better Efforts and 
Higher Ideals. — The recitation is the teacher's 
mental "point of contact" with his pupils. She 
meets them socially in a friendly way at intermis- 
sions and on the playground. Her moral character 
and personality are a model to the children at all 
times. But it is chiefly in the recitation that the 
mental stimulus is given. The teacher who is life- 

15 



less and uninspiring in the teaching of the recita- 
tion cannot but fail to inspire his school to a strong 
mental growth, whatever else he may accomplish. 

Most people have powers far in excess of those 
they are using. They only need to be inspired, to 
be wakened up mentally by a teacher whose mind 
is alive and growing. They need to be made hun- 
gry for education, and this can be accomplished 
only by a teacher who is^herself full of enthusiasm. 
Inspiration is caught, not taught. 

5. Lead Pupils Into Good Habits of Study. — 
It is probably not too much to say that one-third 
or one-half of the pupil's time is lost in school be- 
cause of not knowing how to studv, Over and 
over pupils say to the teacher, 'T didn't know how 
to get this." Many times children labor hard over 
a lesson without mastering it, simply because they 
do not know how to pick out and classify its prin- 
cipal points. They w^ork on w^hat is to them a 
mere jumble, because they lack the power of anal- 
ysis or have never been taught its use. 

Very early in school life the pupil should be 
taught to look for and make a list of the principal 
points in the lesson. If the lesson starts with a Ro- 
man numeral /, the child should be taught to look 
for // and ///. and to see how they are related to /. 
An Arabic i usually means that there is a 2, j 
and 4 to follow ; the letter a at the head of a para- 
graph should start the pupil to looking for h, c, 

16 



etc. And if the text does not contain such num- 
bering or lettering, the pupil should be led to 
search for the main divisions and topics of the 
lesson for himself. 

Of course these principles will not apply to spell- 
ing lessons, mere lists of sentences to be analyzed 
or problems to be solved, but they do apply to al- 
most every other type of lesson. The best time to 
teach the child to make the kind of analysis sug- 
gested is when we are assigning the lesson. We 
can then go over the text with the class helping 
them to select the chief points of the lesson until 
they themselves have learned this method of study. 

III. DRILL AS AN AIAl IN THE RECITA- 
TION. — There is a great difiference between mere- 
ly knowing a thing and knowing it so well that we 
can use it easily and with skill. Perhaps all of us 
know the alphabet backwards, yet if the order of 
the dictionary were reversed so that it would run 
from Z to A we would for a time lack the skill 
we now have in quickly finding any desired words 
in the dictionary. 

Certain fundamentals in our education need to 
be so well learned that they are practically auto- 
matic, and can hence be skillfully performed with- 
out thought or attention. We must know our 
spelling in this way, so that we do not have to 
stop and think how to spell each word. In the 

17 



same manner we must know the mechanics of 
reading, that is, the recognition and pronunciation 
of words, the meaning of punctuation marks, etc. 
And similarly multiplication and the other funda- 
mental operations in arithmetic. Pupils should 
come to know these things so well that they are 
as automatic as speech, or as walking, eating, or 
any other of the many acts which "do themselves." 
If this degree of skill is «ot reached, it means halt- 
ing and inefficient work in all these lines farther on. 
Many are the children who are crippled in their 
work in history, geography, and other studies be- 
cause they cannot read well enough to understand 
the text. Many are struggling along in the more 
advanced parts of the arithmetic, unable to master 
it because they are deficient in the fundamentals, 
because they lack skill. And many are wasting 
time trying to analyze sentences when they cannot 
recognize the different parts of speech. 

Skill is efficiency in doing. It is always a growth, 
and never comes to us ready-made. To be sure, 
some pupils can develop skill much faster than oth- 
ers, but the point is, that skill has to be developed. 
Skill is the result of repetition, or practice, that is, 
of drill. 

The following principles should guide in the use 
of drill in the recitation : 

I, Drill Should be Employed Wherever a 
High Degree of Skill is Required. — This applies 

18 



to what have been called the "tools of knowledge," 
or those things which are necessary in order to 
secure all other knowledge. Such are the "three 
R's," reading, (w)riting, and (a)rithmetic, to 
which we may add spelling. Without a good foun- 
dation in these, all other knowledge will be up-hill 
work, if not wholly impossible. 

2. Drill Must be Upon Correct Models, and 
With Alert Interest and Attention. — Mere repe- 
tition is not enough to secure skill. What teacher 
has not been driven to her wits' ends to prevent 
the successive lines in the copy book from growing 
steadily worse as they increase in number from 
the copy on down the page ! Surely drill with such 
a result would be long in arriving at skill. Such 
practice is not only wholly wasted, but actually re- 
sults in establishing false models and careless hab- 
its in the pupil's mind. Each line must be written 
with correct models in mind, and with the effort 
to make it better than any preceding one, if skill 
is to be the outcome. 

Much of the value of drill is often lost through 
lack of interest and attention.' The child lazily 
sing-songing the multiplication table may learn to 
say it as he would a verse of poetry, and yet not 
know the separate combinations when he needs 
them in problems. What he needs is drill upon 
the different combinations hit-and-miss, and in 
simple problems, rapidly and many times over, 

19 



with sufficient variety and spice that his interest 
and attention are always alert. A certain boy per- 
sisted in saying "have went" instead of "have 
gone." Finally his teacher said, "Johnny, you may 
stay to-night after school and write 'have gone' 
on the blackboard one hundred times. Then you 
will not miss it again." 

Johnny staid after school and wrote "have gone" 
one hundred times as fhe teacher had directed. 
When he had completed his task the teacher had 
gone to another part of the building. Before leav- 
ing for home Johnny politely left this note on the 
teacher's desk : "Dear Teacher : I have went 
home." Plenty of drill, but it was not accompanied 
by interest and attention, and hence left no effect, 

3. Drill Must Not Stop Short of a Reason- 
able Degree of Efficiency, or Skill. — Most teach- 
ers would rather test or teach than to drill. Others 
do not see the necessity of drill. Hence it hap- 
pens that a large proportion of our pupils are not 
given practice or drill enough to arrive at even a 
fair degree of skill. Set ten pupils of the inter- 
mediate grades to adding up four columns of fig- 
ures averaging a footing of 100 to the column, 
and you will probably have at least five different 
answers. And, so with many of the fundamentals 
in other branches as well. We too often stop the 
practice just short of eificiency, and thereby ivaste 
both time and effort. 

20 



4- Drill Must be Governed by Definite Aims. — 

Probably drilling requires more planning- and care 
on the part of the teacher than any other work of 
the recitation. Drill applied indiscriminately wastes 
time and kills interest. To study a spelling lesson 
over fifteen times as some teachers require is folly. 
Every spelling list will contain some words which 
the pupil already knows. He should put little or 
no drill on these, but only on the troublesome ones. 
In learning and using the principal parts of verbs 
it is always the few that cause the difficulty. "He 
done it" ; "Has the bell rang?'' "Set down." These 
and a few other forms are the ones which give 
the trouble ; they should receive the drill. Likewise 
in arithmetic. There are certain combinations in 
the tables, and certain operations in fractions, meas- 
urements, etc., which always make trouble. They 
are the "danger points," and upon these the prac- 
tice should be put. 

The teacher must aim, therefore, to select the 
difficult and the important points and drill upon 
these until they are mastered, being careful not 
to stop at the "half-way house," but steadily to go 
on until skill is obtained. She must be resourceful 
in methods and devices which will relieve the mo- 
notony of repetition ; she must be persistent and 
patient, insisting on the attainment of skill, but 
realizing that it takes time to develop it ; she must 
possess a good pedagogical conscience which will 

21 



be satisfied with nothing short of success in her 
aims. 

The aims to be accompHshed through the reci- 
tation are, then, testing, teaching, and drilling. 
These three aims may, as said before, all be car- 
ried on in the same recitation, or they may come 
in different recitations, as the needs of the subject 
require. Not infrequently they may alternate with 
each other within a few ^moments. In every case, 
however, the teacher should have clearly in mind 
which one of the three processes she is employing 
and why. Not that the teacher must always stop 
to reason the matter out before she employs one 
or the other, but that she should become so familiar 
with the nature and use of each that she almost un- 
consciously passes from one to the other as the 
need for it arises. 

Not many teachers are equally skilled in the use 
of testing, teaching, and drilling. Some have a 
tendency to put most of the recitation time on 
testing whether the class have prepared the assign- 
ment, and devote but little time to teaching or 
drilling. Others love to teach, but do not like to 
test or drill. It is highly desirable that every 
teacher, young or old in experience, should examine 
herself on this question and, if she finds herself 
lacking on any one of the three, carefully set at 
work to remedy the defect. The ideal for us all 

22 



to reach is equal skill in each of the three processes 
of the recitation, testing, teaching, and driUing. 

EXERCISES. 

1. Which do you think you are most successful 
in, testing, teaching, or drillingf Which do you 
like best? 

2. Explain the difference between a series of 
questions meant to test and a series meant to teach. 

3. In what classes are you now giving or have 
you recently given particular attention to drill? 
Why did you think drill necessary? 

4. Have you any pupils who seem not to have 
had sufficient drill in certain subjects? How do 
you tell whether they have had or not? What are 
you doing to remedy the defect? Explain fully, 
giving specific instances. 

5. Explain, giving full particulars, any devices 
which you are using to relieve drill of its monotony 
in some subject where much drill is required. Be 
specific in explaining your method. 

6. Have you any pupils who are hard to get to 
recite? If so, what have you found the best meth- 
od to overcome this difficulty? 

7. Have you discovered any pupils who have a 
tendency to commit their lessons to memory with- 
out coming to understand them? If so, what rem- 
edy have you found for this bad method of study? 
Describe some of the cases, giving details. 

8. Have you found that some of your pupils 
write each succeeding line in their copy book worse 

23 



the farther they get away from the copy? If so, 
what remedy are you trying? Does it work? 

9. Describe some particular recitation you have 
recently had in which you used testing, teaching 
and drilling, all within the one class period. Tell 
just how you did each. 

10. At what points of your work have the sug- 
gestions of this chapter been most helpful? Ex- 
plain with some fullness. 

The answers to all the exercises should be writ- 
ten out carefully and with sufficient fullness and 
detail that they may show clearly just how you 
have handled in your own school the problem sug- 
gested in the question. This note applies to the 
exercises following each chapter. 



24 



II. 



THE METHOD OF THE RECITATION. 

In our last talk we discussed the aims or pur- 
poses of the recitation. We now come to see how 
these aims affect the methods we employ. For it 
is evident at the outset that the method we choose 
must depend on the aim sought in the recitation. 
If we seek to-day to make the recitation chiefly a 
test of how well the lesson has been prepared, or 
how much of yesterday's work has been retained, 
we will select a method suited for testing. If we 
aim to introduce the class to the subject of per- 
centage for the first time, the method must be 
adapted to teaching. If we wish to make the reci- 
tation a drill in the diacritical markings or the mul- 
tiplication table, the method must be still a differ- 
ent one. In other words, the method must he 
planned to accomplish certain definite ends if the 
teaching is to be purposeful and effective. 

There are certain fundamental principles of 
method which underlie all teaching, and which, 
therefore, are to be sought in every recitation, no 
matter what the special method used may chance 

25 



to be. The first of these principles may be stated 
as follows : 

1. Interest is the first requisite for attention 
and all mental actiznty. A recitation without in- 
terest is a dead recitation. Because it possesses 
no life it cannot lead to growth. Nothing can 
take the place of interest. Fear may drive to work 
for a time, but it does not result in development. 
Only interest can bring all the powers and capaci- 
ties of the child into play. Hence the teacher's 
first and greatest problem in the recitation is the 
problem of interest. To secure interest she must 
use every resource at her command. This does 
not mean that she is to bid for the children's in- 
terest with sensational methods and cheap devices. 
This is not the way to secure true interest. It 
means, rather, that she is to oflfer to the class sub- 
ject-matter suited to their age and experience, and 
presented in a way adapted to their capacity and 
understanding; that she is to have all conditions 
surrounding the recitation as favorable as possible; 
and that she is herself to be constantly a source of 
interest and enthusiasm. If these conditions are 
all met the problem of interest will present few 
difficulties. 

2. The natural mode of learning is to proceed 
from the known to the related unknozvn. This is 
a statement of what is known as the principle of 
apperception, or the learning of the new by con- 

26 



necting it with the old already in the mind. To 
make use of this principle it is necessary to freshen 
up what the pupil already knows on a topic by 
asking him questions or otherwise causing him to 
think anew the facts previously learned which are 
related to what he is about to learn. For example, 
when beginning the subject of percentage, the sub- 
ject of decimals should be reviewed, since percent- 
age is but an application of decimals and can most 
easily be learned and understood as such. Like- 
wise in beginning the study of the civil war the 
question of slavery and that of the doctrine of 
states' rights should be reviewed, since these are 
fundamental to an understanding of the causes of 
the war. In similar manner we might apply the 
illustration to every branch of study. Indeed there 
is hardly a single recitation which should not start 
with a brief review or a few questions to freshen 
up in the minds of the pupils the points related 
to the coming lesson. Not only will this insure 
that the lessons themselves shall be better under- 
stood, but the entire subject will in this way come 
to possess a unity instead of ^consisting of a series 
of more or less disconnected lessons in the mind of 
the child. 

Having stated these two general principles of 
method, we will now consider some of the special 
forms of method to be employed in the recitation. 
In discusing these methods and comparing them 

27 



it is not to be forgotten that attention and interest 
are dependent in large measure on change and va- 
riety. The same method used day after day in 
the recitation palls upon a class and invites listless- 
ness and inattention. A teacher should never em- 
ploy cheap or sensational devices in a recitation 
just to have something new, but neither should she 
work a good method to death by too constant use. 

I. THE QUESTION AND ANSWER 
METHOD. — The question and answer method is 
so familiar to everyone that it requires no formal 
definition. It is employed in all grades from the 
primary to the university, and it is adapted alike 
to testing, teaching or drilling. 

This method admits of wide modification to suit 
it to specific uses. The questions asked may re- 
quire but a short and simple answer, such as can 
be given by a primary pupil. They may also re- 
quire a long and complex answer which will test 
the powers of the most advanced student. The 
questions may be detailed and searching, covering 
every point of the lesson, as when we are testing 
preparation. They may deal only with certain re- 
lated truths, as when we "develop" a new subject 
intentionally by questions and answers. Or they 
may select only the most important points upon 
which the class needs drill. 

I. When and Where to Employ the Question 
and Answer Method. — The question and answer 

28 



method is particularly adapted to the lower grades, 
in which the children have not yet developed the 
ability to recite independently on long topics. This 
method allows the teacher to encourage and draw 
out the child by what is really a conversation be- 
tween the two, the teacher asking simple questions 
and the child responding to them. In more ad- 
vanced grades the questions may be so arranged 
as to require longer and more complex answers, 
and thus lead up to the topical method of reciting. 

The question and answer method is also suitable 
to employ at the beginning of a recitation to freshen 
the minds of the class on previous lessons to which 
the lesson of the day is related. There is hardly 
one recitation in a hundred that does not require 
an introduction of this kind. The only true method 
in teaching is to build the new knowledge on the 
related old knowledge which is already in the mind. 
This is what is meant in pedagogy by "proceeding 
from the known to the related unknown." And 
the known must always be fresh and immediately 
present to the mind. Hence the necessity for the 
introductory review. 

This method is also serviceable in reviewing for- 
mer lessons. By the use of well selected questions 
a large number of important points already passed 
over can be brought before the class in a short 
time. 

On the whole, it is probable that we do not re- 

29 



view frequently enough in our recitation work. 
We review a subject when we have finished the 
text upon it, or before examination time, but this 
is not enough. Careful psychological tests have 
shown that the mind forgets within the first three 
days a large proportion of what it fails to retain. 
Further, there is great economy in catching up a 
fading fact before it gets wholly away from us. 
This would suggest the constant use of the ques- 
tion and answer method to fix more finally the im- 
portant points in ground we have already passed 
over. 

One of the most important uses of this method 
is found in all inductive teaching. The famous 
"Socratic method" was simply the question and 
answer method applied by Socrates to teaching new 
truths. This noted teacher would, by a series of 
skillful questions calculated to call forth what the 
pupil already knew, lead him on to new knowledge 
without actually telling the youth anything himself. 
And this is the very height of good teaching — the 
goal toward which we all should strive. 

It is a safe maxim never to tell a child what 
you can lead him by questioning to see for him- 
self. To illustrate : Suppose an elementary arith- 
metic class already know thoroughly how to find 
the area of a rectangle by multiplying its base by 
its altitude, and that we are now ready to teach 
them how to find the area of a triangle. Let us 

30 



see whether we can lead them to "develop" the 
rule instead of learning it out of the text; that is, 
we will proceed inductively. First draw a rec- 
tangle 4 by 6 on the board. 

Q. What do we call this figure? 

A. A rectangle. 

Q. How shall we find its area? 

A. Multiply its base 4 by its altitude 6; the 
area is 24. 

Q. Now I draw a line diagonally across the 
rectangle ; how many figures are there ? 

A. Two. (Teacher here gives new word "tri- 
angle" and explains it.) 

Q. How do the base and altitude of the tri- 
angles compare with the base and altitude of the 
rectangle ? 

A. They are the same. 

Q. How do the two triangles compare in area? 

A. They are equal ; each is half of the rectangle. 

Q. Then, if each is half of the rectangle, what 
must be the area of one of the triangles? 

A. The area of each triangle is 12, for the area 
of the rectangle is 24, and the area of each triangle 
is half that of the rectangle. 

Q. Then, how may we find the area of a tri- 
angle ? 

A. Multiply the base by the altitude and take 
one-half the product. 

Of course the teacher may have to supplement 
questions like the above by others to assist the 

31 



child in arriving at the desired answer, but the 
method is the same in any case. The inductive 
method is the child's natural way of learning:, and 
should be applied to nearly all school branches. 
Too many teachers have children learn rules and 
definitions which m.ean little or nothing to them. 
This is not only discouraging to the child and a 
serious waste of time, but it develops bad habits 
of study by making the^ pupil think he is learning 
something when he is not. Only when the fact or 
process learned is understood is it true knowledge. 
The inductive method begins with what the child 
already knows and. step by step, leads him to un- 
derstand the new truths. It comes last to the rule 
or definition after the m.eaning is clearly seen. 

2. Dangers of the Question and Answer 
Method. — Xo matter how good a method may be 
there are always some dangers connected with its 
use. some points at which a teacher needs to be 
on guard to see that the method is not misused or 
overused. The question and answer method is no 
exception to this rule. 

One of the greatest dangers in the use of this 
method is that pupils will com.e to depend on the 
questions as a crutch to help them along mentally 
when they should be able to proceed by them, selves. 
Not infrequently do pupils say to the teacher when 
called upon for a topical discussion. 'Tf you will 
ask me questions upon the topic I can answer them, 

32 



but I cannot recite upon the topic." It is very 
much easier to answer a series of questions upon 
a subject than to discuss it independently. This 
is well adapted to younger children ; and this very 
reason makes it a danger when overused with more 
advanced pupils. We need to learn to think 
through a subject and talk about topics without 
the help of a teacher to stand by and ask questions ; 
we need to become independent in our thinking ; we 
need practice in organizing and expressing our 
thoughts for ourselves. 

The second danger we note in the question and 
answer method is that it does not give as much op- 
portunity for training in self-expression as the top- 
ical m.ethod. In teaching by the question and an- 
swer method, the teacher occupies nearly or quite 
as much time with the questions as the class do 
with the answers. This does not give opportunity 
for practice enough in reciting on the part of the 
pupil, if the question and answer method is em- 
ployed exclusively. The only way for a child to 
learn to recite well is by reciting, the only way to 
learn to express one's self is by having opportunity 
for expression. 

II. THE TOPICAL METHOD.— The topical 
method is too familiar to require definition. In 
this method the teacher suggests a topic of the les- 
son or asks a question which requires the pupil 

33 



to go on in his own way and tell what he can 
about the point under discussion. There is really 
no hard and fast line betweea the topical method 
and the question and answer method. The funda- 
mental difiference between the two is this : In the 
question and answer method, the question is defi- 
nitely upon some fact or point, and requires a spe- 
cific answer bearing on the fact or point of the 
question ; in the topicaf method, the question or 
topic suggested requires the pupil to decide upon 
what facts or points need discussion, and then to 
plan his own discussion. 

I. Where the Topical Method is Most Serv- 
iceable. — As has already been explained, the top- 
ical method requires more independence of thought 
than the question and answer method, and will 
therefore find its greatest use in the higher grades. 
We are not to think, however, that the topical 
method is not to be used until some certain grade 
has been reached, and that then the child will sud- 
denly find himself able to use it. The ability to 
think independently and speak one's thoughts free- 
ly is a growth, and is not attained suddenly at a 
given age. Even little children, telling their lan- 
guage stories, are using the topical method, and 
should be encouraged in its use. As the grades 
advance, however, the use of this method should 
increase, and the length and difficulty of the topics 
should grow, so that recitation by topics can be 

34 



efficiently carried on in the higher intermediate and 
grammar grades. 

Probably the easiest forms of the topical recita- 
tion are found in history or reading lessons, where 
narration abounds. Narration deals with a succes- 
sion of events, and is always found one of the 
easiest forms of discourse. In proof of this, one 
has but to note the fluency and ease with which a 
child will narrate the events of a game, a trip, or 
an accident, whereas if you call upon him for log- 
ical explanations or even for description, as for 
example. Just what kind of a looking team it was 
which ran away? much more difficulty will be ex- 
perienced in telling about it. 

Another great field for topical recitations is 
found in all lines where description is required. 
This applies to all nature study and science, to 
geography, to certain phases of literature and his- 
tory. To describe even a commonplace object ac- 
curately and well is an art more rare than most 
of us would think. Suppose you ask the first per- 
son you meet to describe fully the house in which 
he lives or the sunset which he has just seen. If 
he seriously tries to comply with your request, you 
will probably be surprised both by the difficulty he 
has in his attempt, and the little that he really can 
say upon these familiar subjects. The interesting 
story teller is a rarity, which is only another way 
of saying that the ability to narrate and describe 

35 



needs cultivation. There is no better opportunity 
possible than that of the topical recitation. 

The topical method can manifestly be used to 
supplement the question and answer method in 
testing the pupils on the preparation of the lesson, 
or in reviewing former lessons. It can also be 
well used in teaching new subject-matter which 
does not particularly require the developmental, 
or "Socratic," method. * Illustrations of such ma- 
terial are to be found in much of the work in his- 
tory and in literature; also in the descriptive parts 
of geography, nature study and science. 

When the topical method is being employed it 
will nearly always need to be supplemented by 
questions and answers. Very rarely will a pupil 
recite upon any important topic with sufficient ac- 
curacy and completeness that nothing more needs 
to be said concerning it. Hence, after the pupil 
has completed his topical discussion, the teacher 
can round out the subject, impress the more im- 
portant points, or correct wrong impressions, by 
a few questions to be answered either by the pu- 
pil who has had the discussion, or by the remainder 
of the class. 

The topical method gives the teacher the best 
opportunity to teach the pupils how to study. It 
is safe to say that most pupils consider that they 
"have their lesson" when they understand it, or 
think they can remember it. But if the child is to 

86 



be taught expression, as well as given knowledge, 
it is evident that this is not enough. Not only 
should a pupil be sure that he understands his les- 
son and can remember it, but also he should think 
how best to express it in the recitation. The 
teacher can help the class in this when assigning 
the topii s by showing the pupils how to pick out 
the main points of the topics, and arrange them in 
order for discussion. This is, of course, really 
training in analysis — a power which all pupils need 
to cultivate. 

2. The Question of Standards in Topical Reci- 
tations. — The success of the topical method will 
depend much on the teacher's standards of thor- 
oughness applied to its use. Children, particu- 
larly of the lower grades, have not yet developed 
much grasp of mind, and consequently are not able 
to judge when they have sufficiently covered a 
topic given them for recitation. They are likely 
to think that if they stand up and say something 
about the topic, this is sufficient. 

It is at this point that the teacher needs to exer- 
cise great care. The child must not be discouraged 
by harsh criticism, but neither must an incomplete 
recitation be accepted as a complete one. The 
teacher must judge carefully how full a discussion 
should be expected from a child of the given age, 
taking into account the treatment of the topic in 
the pupil's text book. Then by questions, further 

37 



discussion by other pupils, kindly criticisms, and 
helpful suggestions the standard should be placed 
as high as the class can attain. Nor is it to be 
forgotten that the standard is to be a constantly 
advancing one. 

III. THE LECTURE, OR SUPPLEMEN- 
TAL METHOD.— The lecture method is rather 
too formal a name for *.the method in which the 
teacher talks to the class instead of asking them 
to recite. She may either take the entire period 
in a lecture, or talk, or she may only supplement 
now and then the answers or topical recitations 
of the pupils. This method is almost exclusively 
used in many universities and colleges, but is not 
suited for extensive use in more elementary schools. 

I. How the Lecture Method is to be Used. — 

While the lecture method should be employed 
sparingly in the elementary school, yet it is most 
valuable to supplement other methods. First, in 
introducing a class to a new subject or section of 
work, it is frequently desirable that the teacher 
should take a part or the whole of a recitation pe- 
riod to explain the nature of the work or to in- 
terest the pupils in it. For example: In taking 
up the discovery of America, the teacher can create 
interest by telling the class of the wonderful events 
going on in Europe during the fifteenth century, of 
the life of Columbus as a boy, of the ships then 



in use. comparinor them with our present steam- 
ships, etc. Similarly for almost every new sec- 
tion taken up in any study. 

The lecture method is also useful in supplement- 
ing the recitations of the pupils. The teacher's 
knowledge must be much broader than the text 
book, and a little explanation added, an incident 
told, or an application of the lesson made will often 
do much to broaden the pupil's knowledge of the 
subject, and will at the same time lend interest 
to the recitation, besides increasing respect for the 
teacher's education. There is nothing more deaden- 
ing to the recitation than a mechanical plodding 
through the questions and answers of a text book, 
without any explanation or amplification, and often 
without much comprehension on the part of the 
class. The teacher who has nothing of her own 
to add is incapable of teaching in the true sense 
of the word. At best she can only test as to the 
preparation from the text book. 

2. Dangers From the Lecture Method. — While 
we justly condemn the teacher who has nothing 
of her own to add to the recitation, we must not 
forget that there is a danger on the other side. 
Ask any assemblage of teachers how many think 
that, in general, their own teachers talked too 
much in the recitation, thereby monopolizing the 
time, and two-thirds will thus blame their former 
teachers for overusing the lecture method. Most 

39 



people, when they are sure of an audience, Hke to 
talk, and probably teachers are no exception to the 
rule. 

The teacher who is full of information and en- 
thusiasm for the recitation is led by this very fact 
into temptation. Some point in the lesson sug- 
gests an interesting story or illustration, or some 
additional bit of information, and the teacher starts 
to tell it to the class. She becomes herself so in- 
terested in it that the lesson is forgotten and the 
class period ended long before the story is com- 
pleted. This may do occasionally but, once it be- 
comes a habit, it is fatal to good teaching. The 
recitation as prepared by the class should be the 
chief interest of the class period. The teacher . 
must learn to supplement without monopolizing. 

IV. THE WRITTEN RECITATION.— The 
written recitation can hardly be called a method, 
since it can be itself applied to any or all of the 
methods of reciting. Like all other methods, the 
written recitation has its strong points of excel- 
lence and also its dangers. 

I. The Use of the Written Recitation.— The 
written recitation is especially useful in cases 
where all of the class should recite upon all of 
the lesson. It is easy to see that by having each 
of a class of ten answer ten questions, a far larger 
amount of answering is done in the aggregate 

40 



than if only one could be answering at a time, as 
in oral recitation. 

Certain knowledge is used only when we use it 
in writing. For example, we are never called upon 
to spell except on writing; similarly forms of let- 
ters in correspondence, business forms, punctuation 
marks, etc. It is safe to say that matter of such 
kinds should usually be taught by having it 
written. 

The written recitation also leads to accuracy and 
precision of thought and expression. We all for- 
mulate more carefully what we write than what 
we speak. 

The written recitation also gives an opportuni- 
ty for training in written expression. Every person 
needs to be able to express himself easily and forc- 
ibly in writing. But this requires much practice, 
and there is no better practice than in formulating 
in writing the thoughts of the daily lessons. 

2. Dangers in the Use of the Written Method. 
— Valuable as the written method is, there are 
certain cautions to be observed in its use. 

This method does not ordinarily possess the in- 
terest and spontaneity of the oral recitation. There 
is no opportunity for the teacher to supplement 
with points brought in. Misconceptions are not 
cleared up in the minds of the pupils, at least dur- 
ing that recitation period, unless the written pa- 
pers are read at once. Usually time does not per- 

41 



mit this. Many children do not Hke to write, and 
hence find the lesson tiresome, especially if con- 
tiued for a whole class period. 

The amount of writing required of children may 
be too great. Few pupils can write long at a time 
without eye-strain, muscle cramp and bad bodily 
positions. Where this is the case, over-fatigue re- 
sults if the amount of written work required is 
large. It is not unusual to find schools in which 
children are required to spend almost half of their 
school hours in some form of written work. This 
is a serious mistake both educationally and from 
the standpoint of health. 

There is also still another side of the matter to 
consider. One of the great advantages of writ- 
ten work is that the pupil may have his errors 
shown him, so that he may reflect upon them and 
correct them. But not infrequently, where the 
amount of written work is too large, the errors 
are not carefully corrected by the teacher, and not 
corrected at all by the pupil. This is why many 
pupils will keep on making the same error time 
after time on their papers. The correction has not 
sufficiently impressed them. 

All written work, with perhaps rare exceptions, 
should be carefully gone over by the teacher, and 
all serious or oft-repeated errors corrected by the 
pupils who made them. Not infrequently may chil- 
dren be seen to glance over a paper which the 

42 



teacher has put precious time and some red ink 
upon in making corrections, and then crumple the 
paper and throw it into the waste basket. Some- 
times this is done in sheer carelesness, and some- 
times in petulance because of the many corrections. 
This is all a loss of time and opportunity. The 
teacher should have tact enough to show the pu- 
pils that corrections are made on their papers for 
their benefit, and not as a punishment. And then 
the pupil should take the trouble to correct the 
errors, that they may not occur again. Better a 
thousand times correct carefully an old paper than 
to write a new one containing the same errors. 

EXERCISES. 

1. Give a series of questions which you have 
used or plan to use in testing the preparation of 
some certain lesson. Tell specifically the text book 
and the pages containing the lesson. 

2. Give a series of inductive questions which 
you have used or plan to use in developing some 
new topic. 

3. Give a series of questions which you have 
used or plan to use in conducting a drill. 

4. What do you consider the advantages of the 
topical method? Its disadvantages? Do not give 
a theoretical answer, but reply from your own 
teaching experience. 

5. When you call on a pupil to recite on a 
topic, and he does fairly well, but does not fully 
cover the topic, what means do you take to have 

43 



the topic completed? Give some specific case and 
the way you handled it. 

6. Give particular instances in which you have 
employed the supplemental method, and tell what 
you did. 

7. Give a list of questions which you have used 
or plan to use to freshen up the points of a pre- 
vious lesson or topic in the minds of a class, so 
as to secure an "apperceptive basis" for present 
ing a new topic. Tell what topic you were pre- 
paring to present. ♦ 

8. What written lessons have you had during 
the past week? Why did you make these partic- 
ular lessons written instead of oral? 

9. Give the plan you took for correcting the 
papers and tell what use the pupils were required 
to make of your marks showing errors. 

10. Have you found any carelessness or bad 
spirit on the part of pupils toward corrections 
marked on their papers? If so, have you devised 
a remedy? Do your pupils hand in carelessly 
written papers? If so, what means do you take 
to secure neatness? 



44 



m. 



THE ART OF QUESTIONING. 

Skill in the art of questioning* lies at the basis 
of all good teaching. When we were children it 
looked so easy for the teacher to sit and ask the 
questions which we were expected to answer. 
When we become teachers we find that it is much 
harder to ask the questions than to answer them. 
For to question well, one must not only know the 
subject thoroughly, but must also constantly inter- 
pret the mind of the pupil to discover what ques- 
tion next to ask, and whether he is mastering what 
we are teaching him. 

The famous "Socratic method" of teaching, 
which has played so large a part in our pedagogical 
literature, consisted of nothing but a series of in- 
ductive questions so arranged as to lead the learner 
from what he already knew to what the master 
would teach him. Good questioning stimulates 
thought, leads to inquiry, and results in under- 
standing and mastery. Poor questioning leaves the 
mental powers unawakened, cripples thought and 
results in inefficiency and lack of mastery. 

45 



There are a few fundamental principles which 
apply to all questioning used in teaching. 

I. FREEDOM FROM SLAVISH DEPEND- 
ENCE ON THE TEXT BOOK.— The questions 
of the recitation must of course deal with the mat- 
ter of the text book and be directly suggested by 
it. Yet there are two dangers to be avoided in 
this connection: (i) Questions should not follow 
the language of the toxt, and (2) the teacher 
should not be dependent on the text book to sug- 
gest the question itself or to determine the cor- 
rectness of the answer. 

The teacher who has not the lesson well pre- 
pared, or who is mentally lazy, has a constant 
temptation to ask questions in the words of the 
book. This is much easier than to know the sub- 
ject and the text book both well enough to for- 
mulate original, appropriate questions. An illus- 
tration of what is meant is found in the following 
account of a recitation conducted from Montgom- 
ery's American History, the lesson being on the 
landing of the Pilgrims (pp. ']'j, 78) : 

Q. On a morning late in November, what did 
the Pilgrims do? 

A. They sighted Cape Cod. 

Q. Two days later, where did the Mayflower 
come to anchor? 

A. In Provincetown Harbor. 

Q. While the Mayflower remained at anchor, 

46 



what did Captain Standish and a boatload of men 
do? 

A. They went out to explore. 

Q. On the shore of the harbor what is there 
lying? 

A. A granite bowlder. 

It is seen that each of these questions follows 
the words of the text, and that the answer but 
completes the sentence of which the question is 
a part. Questions of this kind only suggest to the 
memory the statement of the text, and do not cause 
the pupil to use his own thought in realizing the 
actual event. Hence they arouse little interest 
and leave little impression. They train the verbal 
memory, but leave imagination, thought and un- 
derstanding untouched. How much better such 
questions as these : 

When did the Pilgrims first sight land? 

What land did they see? 

What was its appearance? 

Have you ever seen a stretch of shore like this 
one? 

Why did not the Pilgrims Idnd at this point? 

Where did they finally anchor? 

What measures did they take to see whether 
this was a suitable place to land? 

Why is the name "Plymouth Rock" so famous 
in American history? 

These questions cover just the same ground as 

47 



the ones above, but they suggest living pictures 
and actual events rather than the language of the 
text book. 

The unprepared or lazy teacher is also in dan- 
ger of relying on the text book for her questions 
even when she does not formulate them in the 
language of the printed page. Not infrequently 
teachers conduct the whole of a recitation with 
the text open before theai, hardly taking their eyes 
from the book, and seeming to have no inspiration 
or questions not immediately gleaned from the 
page before them. In extreme cases of unpre- 
paredness they may even have to test the correct- 
ness of the answers given bv the class by refer- 
ence to the text. Of course this is all the highest 
degree of inefficiency. It should not be called 
teaching at all. for no one can teach another that 
which he does not himself possess as a part of his 
own mental equipment. Nothing can be more 
deadening to a class than to see a teacher, whom 
they look upon as their intellectual leader, flounder- 
ing in such a vain attempt to teach something 
which he does not himself know. 

The eyes and the mind of the teacher must 
both be free in the recitation — the eyes to look 
interest and encouragement into the eyes of the 
class, the mind to marshal the points of the les- 
son and watch the effects of their presentation on 
the minds of the pupils. A recitation at its best 

48 



consists of an animated and interesting conversa- 
tion between teacher and class. And no conversa- 
tion can be live and interesting when one of its 
participants has mind and eyes riveted to a book; 
for conversation involves an interchange of expres- 
sion, of spirit, and of personality as well as of 
words. 

It is not meant that a teacher must never have 
a text book open before her during a recitation. 
Often it is not only desirable, but necessary that 
she should do so ; but only for suggestion and ref- 
erence, and never to supply questions and test 
answers. 

It is certainly much better to have the text book 
before one than to teach the lesson after a discon- 
nected and haphazard fashion from lack of familiar- 
ity with its points. An excellent substitute for the 
text, however, is an outline, or plan of the lesson 
embodying the main points, illustrations and ap- 
plications to be made. Such an outline will save 
the teacher from wandering too far afield in the 
discussions, will insure unity in the lesson,, and 
make certain that important points shall not be 
overlooked. 

A desirable rule for the teacher to set for her- 
self would be so to prepare for the recitation by 
mastery of the subject, and by lesson plan or out- 
line, that she does not need to have the text book 
open before her when the pupils do not also have 



their books open. The teacher who will heroically 
meet this standard will soon find growing in her- 
self a feeling of mastery of her subjects and of 
joy in her teaching. 

II. THE PRINCIPLE OF UNITY OR CON- 
TINUITY. — Questions should be so planned that 
they develop or bring out the unity of the lesson. 
It is possible for questions to be so haphazard and 
disconnected that the pupil receives the impression 
of a series of unrelated facts, rather than a uni- 
fied and related subject. In good questioning, one 
question naturally grows out of another, so that 
the series develop step by step the truth contained 
in the lesson, and bring it to the mind of the child 
as a complete whole. 

This means that the teacher must know the whole 
subject so thoroughly that the right questions come 
to her easily and naturally, and in the right order 
to bring out the successive steps of the lesson in 
their logical relations. 

The diflference between a related series of ques- 
tions and an unrelated is shown in two lists which 
follow. Both deal with the same subject-matter, 
a physiology lesson on respiration. The questions 
of the first list are not themselves faulty, but there 
is no continuity among them ; one does not grow 
out of another so as to "develop" the subject in 
the minds of the class. 

50 



What chang-e takes place in the air while in the 
lungs ? 

What change takes place in the blood while in 
the lungs? 

How many cubic inches of air will the lungs 
contain ? 

How much of this cannot be expelled by breath- 
ing out? 

How many times do we naturally breathe in a 
minute? 

What are some of the effects of breathing im- 
pure air? 

How is the oxygen carried by the blood ? 

What is animal heat? 

What is the temperature of the body ? 

These questions were all answered fairly well 
by the class, but the answers contained only so 
many bits of isolated information, and the pupils 
did not understand the subject after they had re- 
cited upon it. Another teacher asked the following 
questions : 

Why must the body have air to breathe? 

Of what use is oxygen in the body? 

Where does this oxidization, or burning up of 
worn out cells take place? 

But how is the oxygen carried to every part of 
the body and brought into contact with the tissues? 

Where do the corpuscles of the blood get their 
loads of oxygen? 

51 



What gas do they give up in exchange for the 
oxygen ? 

Where do they get the carbon-dioxide? 

How does air entering the lungs differ from air 
leaving them? 

What corresponding change takes place in the 
blood while it is in the lungs? 

Explain how the change is effected in each case. 

Suppose we breathe air that contains too little 
oxygen, what will be the effect on the corpuscles? 

What will be the effect on oxidization in the 
tissues? 

And what is the effect of poor oxidization on 
physical vitality? 

On mental vitality? 

The class who answered these questions not only 
had the information belonging to each separate 
question, but they understood the lesson as a whole, 
because each question grew out of those which 
preceded it, thus making the recitation a unified 
whole. 

III. CLEARNESS. — Questions must be made 
clear, so that their meaning may be understood. 
This is not always an easy task, and the teacher 
frequently misses being wholly clear, as is evi- 
denced by the fact that often when a pupil fails 
to answer a question asked in one way, he can an- 
swer it easily when the wording is changed. This 

52 



means that the difficuhy for the pupil existed in 
the question, and not in the answer. 

Clearness in questioning involves three factors : 
(l) Freedom from ambiguity or obscurity of word- 
ing; (2) adaptation to the age and understanding 
of the pupil; (3) reasonable brevity. 

I. Freedom From Ambiguity or Obscurity of 
Wording. — This is fundamentally a matter of the 
use of good English. It requires such a choice 
and arrangement of words and clauses that there 
can be no doubt as to the meaning to be conveyed. 
Assuming a fair command of the language and 
care in its use, the basis of clearness at this point 
is thorough mastery of the subject-matter of the 
questions, so that the teacher himself understands 
clearly just what he means to ask. 

The following illustrations show some questions 
which are faulty from the standpoint of obscurity 
of meaning: 

What caused Lincoln to issue the Emancipation 
Proclamation in 1863? (Not clear whether ques- 
tion means why did he issue the E. P. at all, or 
why did he issue it in 1863 instead of some other 
time.) 

What are the effects of attention to a moving 
object? (Not clear whether question means ef- 
fects on the person attending or the efifect which 
the moving of an object has in making itself seen.) 

Who chased whom down what valley? 

Why has a cat fur and a duck feathers ? 

53 



2. Adaptation to the Age and Understand- 
ing of the Child. — Questions which may be per- 
fectly clear to an adult may be hazy or incom- 
prehensible to a child because he does not under- 
stand the terms used in the question, or because 
it deals with matters beyond his grasp. The 
teacher must keep within the vocabulary of the 
child in formulating his questions. Where it is 
necessary or desirable t(t introduce new words into 
questions, care must be taken that the child fully 
knows the meaning of the new terms. A teacher 
asked a class in elementary physiology, "What 
measure? would you take to resuscitate a person 
asphyxiated with carbon dioxide?" The class all 
looked blank. No one seemed to know what to 
do. It chanced that the superintendent was visit- 
ing the school, and he said to the teacher, "Let me 
try." Then he asked the class, "What would you 
do for a person who had been smothered by breath- 
ing coal gas?" The class brightened up, and every 
hand was raised indicating readiness to answer 
the question. 

Another teacher bewildered her class by asking, 
"Which phenomena of the fratricidal strife in the 
American Republic were most determinative of the 
ultimate fate of the nation?" No one knew. Had 
she asked her question in plain terms, no doubt the 
class could have answered it. 

In an elementary history class, a teacher pro- 

54 



pounded this question : "What American institu- 
tions have been founded on the principle of social 
democracy?" Not only the terms of the question, 
but the thought also is beyond the comprehension 
of children. Such questions are not only useless 
as a means of testing, teaching, or drilling, but they 
serve to confuse and discourage the child, and 
cause him to lose interest in school. 

3. Brevity. — No matter how^ w^ell a question 
is worded, or how well it is adapted to the age 
and capacity of the pupil, it may fail in clearness 
because it is too long and disjointed, or because it 
deals with too many points. Better far break a 
complicated question up into several simple ones, 
concerning whose meaning there can be no doubt. 

A teacher who had not yet mastered the art of 
questioning asked her physiology class a question 
something like this : "Do you consider it advis- 
able, taking into account the fact that none of the 
vital processes go on as vigorously during sleep as 
during the waking hours (you remember that the 
breathing and the pulse are less rapid and the tem- 
perature of the body also lower), to eat just be- 
fore retiring at night, especially if one is very 
tired and exhausted — a condition which still fur- 
ther lowers the vitality and hence decreases the 
powers of digestion and assimilation, and would 
your answer be different if it is understood that 
the food taken is to be light and easily digested?" 

55 



It is needless to say that the class found themselves 
lost in the maze of conditions and parenthetical 
expressions and did not attempt an answer. The 
question contains material for a dozen different 
questions, and probably the class could have an- 
swered them all had they been properly asked. 

IV. DEFINITENESS.— Questions should be 
definite, so that they can have but one meaning. 
It is possible to ask a question so that its general 
meaning is clear enough, but so that its precise 
meaning is in doubt. Such questions leave the pu- 
pil puzzled, and usually lead to indirectness or 
guessing in the answer. Failure to make questions 
definite, so that they can have but one meaning is 
responsible for much of the difference of opinion 
on disputed questions. 

Many of the stock questions upon which amateur 
debating societies have exercised their talents would 
admit of no debate at all, if once the question were 
made definite. For the ground for debate lies in 
the difference in interpretation of the question and 
not in the facts themselves. For example: If a 
cannon ball were to be fired off by some mechanical 
device a million miles from where there was any 
ear to hear, would there be any sound? The lack 
of definiteness here which permits difference of 
opinion lies in the word "sound." If we add after 
the word "sound" the phrase, "in the sense of a 
conscious auditory sensation," the answer would 

56 



obviously be, No, since there can be no auditory 
sensation without an ear to hear it. If, on the 
other hand, instead of the above phrase we add, 
"in the sense of wave-vibrations in the air," the 
answer will obviously be, Yes, since the wave- 
vibrations in the air do not depend on the pres- 
ence of an ear to be affected by them. 

Likewise, in the question, If a man starts to 
walk around a squirrel which is clinging to the 
limb of a tree, and as the man circles the tree the 
squirrel also circles the tree, so that he constantly 
faces the man, when the man had gone completely 
around the tree, has he gone around the squirrel? 
Here the indefiniteness lies in the meaning of to 
"go around." With this indefiniteness remedied, 
there is no longer any possibility of difference of 
opinion. 

Indefiniteness may come from the use of certain 
words, which from their very nature are indefinite 
in meaning. Such are the verbs he, do, have, he- 
come, happen and the prepositions of and about. 
Examples of indefiniteness growing out of such 
colorless words are found in >the following ques- 
tions, which are types of many asked in our schools 
daily : 

What does water do when heated? (Expands, 
evaporates, boils.) 

What happens when it lightnings? (Thunder, 
discharge of electricity, flash.) 

57 



What must immigrants coming into this country 
have? (Money, freedom from disease, character.) 

What did Arnold become? (A traitor, a British 
general, an outcast, a repentant man.) 

What is the cow? (A mammal, a quadruped, a 
producer of milk, butter and beef, .an herbivorous 
animal.) 

What about the Monroe Doctrine? (A dozen 
different things.) • 

What of the animals in the temperate zone? 

Questions may be so general as to be indefinite. 
The teacher asks, "Where is Chicago?" The class 
may answer, "In Illinois on Lake Michigan ; in 
North America; in Cook County." The teacher 
should know just what answer he desires, and then 
ask, "In what State; on what continent; on what 
lake; or in what county?" 

Other illustrations of vagueness coming from 
the use of words of too general a meaning are 
found in such questions as. What kind of a man 
was George Washington? 

When does a person need food? 

Hozv does tobacco grow? 

What do birds like? 

All indefinite questions deserve and usually re- 
ceive an indefinite answer, and hence lead to and 
encourage guessing. If the answers to such ques- 
tions as the above are not indefinite, they must be 
purely memoriter, merely reproducing the words 

58 



of the text without comprehension of any real 
meaning. 

Indefinite questioning usually comes from a lack 
of clear thinking on the part of the questioner. 
The teacher herself does not know precisely what 
she means to ask, and hence cannot be definite. 
It is safe to say that the teacher's questions cover- 
ing a subject will never be any more clear or defi- 
nite than the subject itself is in her mind. In- 
deed it is hard to be wholly definite in questioning 
even when one is a perfect master of his subject. 
Certainly, then, eternal vigilance will be the price 
of clearness and definiteness on the part of the 
young teacher who is as yet striving for mastery 
of what he is teaching. 

Besides the foregoing fundamental principles un- 
derlying the art of questioning, there are a few 
secondary principles, some of which are of hardly 
less importance: 

1. Questions should be asked naturally, and in 
a conversational tone, and not explosively de- 
manded of pupils. 

2. Usually the question sht»uld be addressed to 
the entire class and, after all have had a moment 
to think, some one then designated to answer. The 
reason for this is obvious. If the one who is to 
answer is designated before the question is asked, 
the incentive to the rest of the class to think the 
answer is greatly lessened. 



3- No regular order should be followed in call- 
ing on pupils. If such an order is established, the 
lazy and uninterested ones have a tendency to re- 
main inactive until called upon. By the hit-and- 
miss method of calling no one knows at what mo- 
ment he may be the next one, hence there is a 
strong incentive to attend to the lesson. It is also 
desirable to call on a pupil occasionally the second 
time very soon after he 4ias previously been called 
upon. This prevents him from thinking that as 
soon as he has recited once he can then safely 
relax his attention. 

4. Inattentive or mischievous pupils should be 
the mark for frequent questions. If it comes to 
be known that any inattention is sure to bring ques- 
tions to the pupil at fault, the battle for attention 
is half won. There is a strong tendency on the 
part of the teacher to ask for the answer to a 
question from those whose eyes show that they 
are attentive and ready with an answer. While 
this readiness and attention should be rewarded by 
giving an opportunity to answer, it must not lead 
the teacher to neglect those who may need the 
question more than the more ready ones. The 
questions should be impartially distributed among 
the bright and the dull pupils. 

5. It is highly important that questions shall 
be asked so that they demand thought in answer- 
ing, and usually so that the answer must be given 

60 



in a full statement. Seldom should a question be 
asked in such form that a simple yes or no will 
answer it. This does not require sufficient thought 
on the part of the pupil, it permits guesswork, 
and fails to cultivate ability in expression. An- 
swers which may be given in a word or two, or 
by yes or no may be accepted in rapid drill or 
review work, and also in the inductive question- 
ing used in developing a new subject, but this form 
of answer should be used very sparingly in other 
places in the recitation. 

6. The "pumping" question should not be used. 
In this type of question, the teacher formulates 
the answer and leaves only the key word for the 
pupil to supply. The teacher sometimes goes so 
far as to suggest the necessary word by pronounc- 
ing the first syllable or two of it. A dialogue like 
the following is was heard in one school : 

Q. "Columbus was an ?" 

A, "Explorer." 

Q. "No, he was an It ?" 

A. "Oh, an Italian." 

Such an attempt at teaching would be amusing, 
were it not so serious for the child. 

The teacher's treatment of the answers given 
is of hardly less importance than the formulation 
of the questions them.selves. It is to be remem- 
bered that the recitation is an interchange of 
thought and expression between teacher and class. 

61 



In order to this the response must be mutual. 
Not alone when the question is being asked, then, 
is the teacher to be animated and interested, but 
likewise while the answer is being given. It is 
neither good pedagogy nor good manners for a 
teacher to sit unresponsive and inattentive when a 
pupil is reciting. Not that the teacher needs al- 
ways to comment on an answer, or say that it is 
correct ; it is rather a matter of manner, of atten- 
tion and interest to the answer. We find it em- 
barrassing either in a recitation or out of it to 
talk to a person who seems not to be listening. 

Right at this point, however, there lurks an in- 
sidious danger. It comes easily and naturally to 
one to give some sign of assent or disapproval as 
to the correctness of the answer while it is being 
spoken. The slightest inclination of the head, the 
dropping of the eyelids, or a certain expression of 
the face, comes to be read by the pupils as a sign- 
board to guide them in their statements. This is, 
of course, all wrong. The teacher should give 
absolutely no sign while the answer is going on. 
Thus to help the child, leads to dependence on the 
teacher instead of reliance on the pupil's own 
knowledge. It leads to guessing, and so skillful 
does this sornetimes become that a bright but un- 
prepared pupil is able to steer through a recitation 
guided by the unsuspecting teacher. 

Answers should not be repeated by the teacher. 

62 



This is a very common fault, and a habit that is 
usually acquired before the teacher is aware of it. 
The tendency to repeat answers probably arises at 
first from a mental unreadiness on the part of the 
teacher. She has not her next question quite 
ready, and so bridges over the interval by saying 
over the answer just given by the pupil. It is a 
method of gaining time, but really finally results in 
great loss of time in the recitation. By actual 
count, many teachers have been found to repeat 
as high as 75% of the answers given in the reci- 
tation. Besides the great waste of time, the repe- 
tition of answers is a source of distraction and 
annoyance to pupils. No one enjoys having his 
words said over after him constantly. Of course 
answers may sometimes need to be repeated to em- 
phasize some important point. But when repeti- 
tion has become a habit, no emphasis is gained by 
the repetition. 

Finally, answers should be required in good Eng- 
lish, clear and definite, like the questions. Pupils 
who say, "An improper fraction is 'where' the 
numerator is greater than the denominator"; "A 
compound sentence is 'when' it has two or more 
independent clauses," should be led to restate their 
answers in clear and correct language. 

EXERCISES. 

I. To what extent do you find it possible to get 

63 



along without the text book in conducting recita- 
tions? Do you find it necessary to use a written 
outline or lesson plan when you dispense with the 
book? In what lessons do you think it is better 
for the teacher to have the book open? 

2. Do you find in your own case a tendency to 
ask questions in the words of the text? Have you 
noticed whether the children have a tendency to 
answer in the words of the text? What objection 
is there to pupils answering in the words of the 
text? 

3. Select some lesson which you will soon reach 
in your work and write down a list of the ques- 
tions you plan to ask in the recitation. Give the 
name of the book, and the pages of the lesson. 

4. Have you caught yourself asking questions 
in the recitation which were faulty from the stand- 
point of clearness? If so, give the particulars. If 
not, keep watch for a few days and then answer 
this question. 

5. Keep for one week a list of all the questions 
you notice asked by yourself pr your pupils which 
are faulty because of not being definite. Report 
the results. 

6. Is it your custom to call on the pupil who 
is to answer before you state the question, or to 
ask the question first and then designate the one 
who is to answer? Give reasons for the plan you 
follow. 

7. Do you find that you have a tendency to give 
some sign of approval or disapproval while an an- 
swer is being given? Do you think there are any 

64 



circumstances under which it might be well to offer 
the pupil some help with the answer? Explain, 

8. Do you find yourself repeating answers after 
the pupils? What seems to you the chief objec- 
tions to this habit? 

9. Do you find your pupils using incorrect forms 
of answer such as are described in the last para- 
graph of the chapter? If so, what measures are 
you taking to remedy the defect? 

10. Write with some fullness whether the sug- 
gestions of this chapter have been helpful to you, 
and if they have, in just what particulars. 



65 



IV. 



CONDITIONS NECESSARY TO A GOOD 
RECITATION. 

We have now discussed the aim of the recita- 
tion, its methods, and the principles governing the 
art of questioning. But no matter how well de- 
fined the aim for the recitation, no matter how ex- 
cellent its method, no matter how skilled the 
teacher may be in the art of questioning, these 
things alone cannot make a good recitation. Cer- 
tain other fundamental conditions must obtain if 
the recitation is to be a success. Let us now dis- 
cuss the more important of these conditions. 

I. FREEDOM FROM DISTRACTIONS.— 
Distractions of any nature result in a double waste. 
First, a waste of power through preventing con- 
centration and continuity of thought. No mat- 
ter how hard one may try he cannot secure the 
best results from his mental effort, if his stream 
of thought is being broken in upon. The loss by 
this process is comparable to that involved in run- 
ning a train of cars, and stopping it every ten rods 
instead of every ten or every one hundred miles. 

67 



But this form of waste is not all. There is also 
a serious waste of interest and enthusiasm result- 
ing from interrupted recitations. Every teacher 
has at times felt the sudden drop in attention and 
interest on the part of the class after some inter- 
ruption which took the minds of the class off the 
subject. Try as hard as the teacher may, it is im- 
possible to go back to the same level of efficiency 
following such a break. , The following are some 
of the chief sources of distractions : 

I. Distractions by the Teacher. — It may seem 
strange to accuse the teacher of causing distrac- 
tion, but it is none the less true that many teachers 
are to be criticised on this point. Any striking 
feature or peculiarity of manner, dress, or carriage 
which attracts the attention of the class is a dis- 
traction. A loud or ill-modulated voice, tones too 
low or indistinct to be heard well, the habit of 
walking up and down the aisles or back and forth 
before the class, assuming awkward positions stand- 
ing or sitting before the class — these are all per- 
sonal factors which the teacher needs to keep con- 
stantly under surveillance. 

The teacher may also distract the class by an- 
swering questions asked by the pupils at their 
seats, or by rebuking misdemeanors seen among 
those not in the recitation. Most of such interrup- 
tions are wholly unnecessary, and could be avoided 
by a little foresight and management. The lessons 



should be so well assigned that they will not need 
to be asked over again, and then there should be a 
penalty for forgetting them. The drinks should 
be secured and the errands attended to between 
classes. The pencils should be supplied and sharp- 
ened before the session begins. The mischievous 
culprits should be taught that it is a serious of- 
fense to interrupt a recitation. The teacher who 
permits these distractions by the school has not yet 
learned the secret of good management, and could 
hardly advertise her inefficiency in this regard any 
more effectively than by permitting such interrup- 
tions to continue. 

It is also possible for the teacher to distract the 
person reciting by interrupting when there is a 
slight pause to think of the next point, or a hesita- 
tion before pronouncing a word. Teachers some- 
times even interrupt a pupil who is reciting and 
themselves offer explanations, make remarks, or 
continue the discussion, leaving the child standing 
and not knowing whether he is excused or not. Of 
course this is bad manners on the part of the 
teacher, and it is even worse pedagogy. It is not 
encouraging to the pupil to feel that he may be in- 
terrupted at any moment, and few can think clearly 
or recite well when expecting such interruptions. 
The pupil should not expect to be allowed to think 
out a lesson or point when he is reciting, which he 
should have thought out before coming to class. 

69. 



On the other hand the teacher must remember 
that the child's mind is working on what to him is 
new and difficult matter, and hence cannot move 
as rapidly as the teacher's. 

2. Distractions by the Class. — Inattention, 
restlessness and mischief are great sources of dis- 
traction from the class themselves. All these 
things have a tendency to be contagious, and in 
any case always break ip upon the train of thought 
of the recitation. Because of this the teacher must 
win the inattentive and restless, and tnust check the 
restless if she would save her recitation. 

Not infrequently, in the more elementary classes, 
a certain kind of distraction is fostered and en- 
couraged by the teacher with the aim of securing 
the attention of the whole class to the one who is 
reciting. This form of distraction consists in hav- 
ing the whole class watch the one who is reciting 
and, if he makes an error, those who observe the 
error are at once to raise their hands, and the one 
reciting must stop. This is a mistake from almost 
every standpoint, and has very little to redeem it. 
It may result in closer attention on the part of the 
class ; but the motive which prompts the attention 
is bad. It leads to elation and rejoicing over the 
mistakes and failures of another, and it centers at- 
tention on the mistakes rather than on the facts 
to be brought out. Attention should be trained so 
that it will not have to depend on this kind of 

70 



motive, and the memory should be trained to note 
and hold a correction until the one reciting has 
finished. Further, it is a most serious distraction 
to the one who is reciting to be expecting that a 
forest of hands may at any moment be wildly wav- 
ing about his ears, gleefully announcing that he 
has made an error. Condemnation of this method 
of securing attention can hardly be too severe. 

3. Distractions by the School. — In any busy, 
working school there is bound to be more or less 
of hum and confusion. In many schools, however, 
there is much more confusion than is warranted. 
It is true that children get tired of sitting still for 
an entire session, and that they find relief in going 
for a drink, or going to the dictionary, or on some 
other errand about the room. In some schools, 
one or more pupils may be found walking about 
the room at almost any time of the day, and not 
infrequently several are on errands at the same 
time. This, as previously noted, is usually a fault 
in management on the part of the teacher. The 
larger part of these interruptions can just as well 
be saved by a little foresight an'd firmness. 

Some teachers even leave the class which they 
are hearing to answer questions or give help to 
pupils in the school who have not been trained to 
wait for their requests until the class is dismissed. 
Usually a very small percentage of these questions 
should have been asked at all, or would have been 

71 



with the proper management of the school. And 
all the necessary questions and requests should al- 
most without exception be held for the interval 
between recitations. The school should be taught 
that nothing short of the direst necessity will war- 
rant asking a question or making a request during 
a recitation. 

Likewise in the case of misdemeanors. The class 
which is reciting should not be interrupted for 
minor misdemeanors which occur during the reci- 
tation. This does not mean that the misdemeanor 
is to go by unnoticed. On the contrary, the set- 
tlement for it may be all the more severe for hav- 
ing to wait until the class is dismissed. 

4. Distractions by the Physical Environment. 
— Distractions from the physical environment may 
be of several kinds. Not infrequently the recita- 
tion seat is so placed with reference to windows 
that the light strikes the eyes of the pupils, instead 
of the pages of the books; or it may be that a 
stray sunbeam strikes athwart the class and daz- 
zles the eyes. It need hardly be suggested that 
no such distraction as this should go unremedied. 

In the rural schools the recitation seats are often 
near the stove, where the temperature becomes un- 
bearably hot when the stove must be generously 
fired to heat the remainder of the room. Not in- 
frequently the ventilation is bad, and the room is 
filled with foul air, from which the major part of 

72 



the oxygen has been exhausted. No matter how 
good the intentions of the class or how zealous the 
teacher, such conditions will kill the recitation. 

Whatever may be the cause of physical discom- 
fort or unrest should be remedied. One's body 
should be so comfortable and healthy that it does 
not attract attention to itself, except when needing 
food or other care, and it is the duty of the school 
to do all possible to bring this condition about. 

II. INTEREST AND ENTHUSIASM.— In- 
terest is the foundation of all mental activity. Its 
very nature is to lead to thought and action. 
Grown ardent, interest becomes enthusiasm, "with- 
out which," says Emerson, "nothing great was ever 
accomplished." On the other hand, the absence of 
interest leaves the pupil lifeless and inert mentally, 
his work a bore and achievement impossible. In- 
terest is, therefore, a first consideration in the reci- 
tation. 

I. Interest and Enthusiasm on the Part of the 
Teacher. — Interest is contagious. Enthusiasm 
is caught, not taught. No one ever saw an in- 
terested and enthusiastic teacher with a dull and 
lifeless class. Nor can interest and enthusiasm on 
the part of a class continue in the presence of a 
mechanical and lifeless teacher. The teacher is the 
model, and she sets the standard and pace for her 
class. Unconsciously the pupils come, under the 
influence of the teacher's personality, to reflect her 

73 



type of mind and attitude toward the work of the 
school. The teacher's interest and vivacity in the 
recitation depend on many factors, some of which 
are largely under her own control. 

a. The teacher's command of the subject-mat- 
ter of the recitation. — A teacher whose grasp of 
the lesson is doubtful, who does not feel sure that 
she is a master of all its points, who fears that 
questions may be asked which she cannot answer 
or points raised which she cannot explain, can 
hardly possess an attitude of true interest toward 
the recitation. Her mind is too full of worry and 
strain and embarrassment. She lacks the sense of 
ease and freedom which comes from a sense of 
mastery. 

Command of the subject-matter of the recitation 
depends, first on the teacher's general mastery of 
the branch, and, second, on being freshly prepared 
upon it. It behooves every young teacher, there- 
fore, to strive for mastery as she teaches. 

But no matter how good the preliminary prepa- 
ration, this cannot take the place of the fresh daily 
review, which gives the mind a new readiness and 
grasp on the subject. Let the teachers who feel 
that their recitations are slow and dull, seek the 
cause first of all in their own lack of preparation 
in one of the two lines mentioned. 

b. The teacher's attitude toward her work. — 
If the teacher looks upon teaching as a mechanical 

74 



process ; if she looks on the recitation as "hearing 
the class recite;" if she realizes nothing of the op- 
portunities and responsibilities connected with teach- 
ing children, then she can command little interest 
and no enthusiasm. If, on the other hand, teaching 
is 10 the teacher a joy ; if she loves to watch the 
minds of children unfold ; if she rejoices in her 
opportunities and responsibilities as a teacher, then 
she is sure to develop an interest which will soon in- 
tensify with enthusiasm. 

c. The teacher's health. — All have experienced 
the mental depression and lack of interest in things 
which comes from over-fatigue. The most interest- 
ing occupation palls on us when we are fagged, 
or when our vitality is low from derangement of 
health. A case of indigestion may sweep us out of 
our usual cheery mood into a mood of discourage- 
ment and pessimism. Frayed nerves and an ill- 
nourished or exhausted brain are fatal to enthu- 
siasm. 

Teaching is found to be a very trying occupa- 
tion on the general health, and particularly on the 
nervous system. Many girls* break down, or de- 
velop a chronic nervous trouble in a few years in 
the school room. The combined work and worry 
prove too much for their strength and not infre- 
quently, also, the teacher who boards, and carries 
a cold luncheon to school fails to secure the right 
kind of food. This is especially true in the rural 

75 



schools. Farmers have enough to eat, but often 
the food suitable for men engaged in heavy manual 
labor is wholly unsuited for one who works with 
the brain and does not have a large amount of 
outdoor exercise. 

Nor do teachers always secure enough pure air. 
The air of schoolrooms is usually vitiated to such 
a degree that one on coming in from the outdoor 
air can detect a foul odor. But the air of a room 
ceases to be fit to breathe long before an odor can 
be detected from its impurities. 

These are some of the chief factors which are 
proving so fatal to the health of many of our 
teachers, and to interest and enthusiasm on the 
part of the teacher in her work. Both for the 
sake of her health and her work, every teacher 
should seek to control these three factors as far 
as possible. Strain and worry and wear of nerves 
can be greatly lessened by careful planning of work, 
by good organization and careful management, and 
by exercise of the will to prohibit worry over 
matters large or small when worry will not help 
solve them. The teacher can in some degree de- 
termine what food she will eat, even if it means 
a change of boarding place. And surely every 
teacher can control the supply of fresh air for 
the schoolroom and her bedroom, and this is per- 
haps the most important of all. 

d. Experience. — The young teacher, without ex- 

76 



perience, may from sheer embarrassment and lack 
of mastery fail to show the enthusiasm which she 
would like, for embarrassment of any kind and 
enthusiasm do not thrive well together. But if the 
teacher is really fundamentally interested in her 
teaching, the enthusiasm will soon come. And 
better a thousand times the young teacher who is 
earnestly fighting for freedom and mastery in the 
recitation, than the old teacher who has grown 
wearied of the routine and has made out of the 
recitation a machine process. 

III. LESSONS WELL PREPARED.— Prob- 
ably the worst of all drawbacks to good recitations 
is poorly prepared lessons. One of the greatest 
criticisms to which our educational system is open 
is that teachers try to teach and pupils try to re- 
cite lessons which are badly or indifferently pre- 
pared by both. There is nothing more stupefying 
to the mind, or more fatal to interest in school 
work than the halting, stumbling, ineffective recita- 
tions heard in many schools. Teachers who try to 
teach lessons with which they are not thoroughly 
familiar are but blind leaders of the blind, and both 
they and their pupils are sure to fall into the ditch. 

I. Preparation by the Teacher. — The teacher 
is the key to the situation. If she herself lacks in 
preparation, she can neither lead nor compel her 
pupils to the preparation of their lessons. She 

77 



sets the standard. A stream does not rise higher 
than its source. 

The teacher's preparation has two different as- 
pects : ( I ) The general fundamental knowledge 
of the subject as a whole obtained by previous study ; 
and (2) the daily preparation by stCidy, thought, 
or reading for the recitation. 

In general it is safe to say that teachers enter 
upon their vocation without sufficient education. 
Our certificate requirements are low, and many 
enter upon teaching with Httle or no more school- 
ing than that obtained in the schools where they 
go to teaching. Of course this is radically wrong, 
but it is the fault of our school system and not of 
the teacher. It behooves teachers entering upon 
their work with this scanty preparation to recog- 
nize their limitations, however, and do their best 
to remedy them. Low grade of certificate, low 
standings in any branches, or the teacher's own 
consciousness of lack of mastery should be suffi- 
cient to send the sincere and earnest teacher to 
school again, even if this must be to summer schools 
instead of longer sessions. This sacrifice will not 
only pay abundantly in higher salary, but also in 
greater teaching power and in the sense of greater 
mastery and personal growth. 

But no amount of preparation in a branch will 
relieve a teacher of the necessity of daily prepara- 
tion for the recitation. Dr. Arnold expressed this 

78 



thought when he said: "I prefer that my pupils 
shall drink from a running stream, rather than 
from a stagnant pool." In order that one may 
handle a line of thought easily it must be fresh 
in his mind ; it is not enough that he has once 
known it well. One of the master teachers of our 
country, a university professor who is recognized 
as a great authority in his chosen subject, Latin, 
recently said to a group of Latin teachers: "I 
have taught Cicero for twenty years, until I know 
it by heart. But yet, every day, one hour before 
the time for my Cicero class, I go to my study and 
spend an hour with Cicero, just to get into the 
spirit of it. I would not dare to meet my class 
without it." 

It is true that the teacher with twenty or more 
classes a day cannot spend an hour on the prepara- 
tion of each lesson. But most of the lessons will 
not require so much — sometimes it is an outline 
or a lesson plan, sometimes reading the lesson over 
to freshen the mind upon it, sometimes it is only 
to think the lesson through to get its plan and 
topics into the mind. It may at times, however, 
mean hard and serious study to master the dif- 
ficult points and their presentation. But whatever 
tt means, the conscientious and growing teacher 
will go to the lesson prepared to teach it in such a 
way as to inspire to high standards and mastery 
on the part of the pupils. 

79 



2, Preparation by the Class. — But in addi- 
tion to the well prepared teacher, there must also 
be a well prepared class. The teacher cannot make 
bricks without straw. Every failure to recite when 
called upon is a dead weight upon the progress of 
the recitation ; and each failure makes it easier for 
the next one to fail with impunity, or at least with- 
out disgrace. It therefore behooves the teacher 
who would have inspiring recitations to lead the 
pupils to a high standard of preparation. 

The pupil's preparation of the lesson should in- 
clude two distinct lines: (i) Mastery of the facts, 
thought, or meaning of the lesson, and (2) thought 
or plans as how best to express the lesson in the 
recitation. Most pupils think they "have their les- 
son" when they have memorized it or come to un- 
derstand it. They must also be made to see that 
an important part of their preparation lies in the 
ability to tell well what they have learned. 

IV. HIGH STANDARDS.— There is no more 
potent force than public opinion to compel to high 
achievement or restrain from unworthy acts. A 
school in which the standards of preparation and 
recitation are low presents a difficult problem for 
the teacher in the recitation. In some schools pu- 
pils who are diffident about reciting, or who do 
not care to take the trouble, shake their heads in 
refusal almost before their hear the question in 
full. Others sit in stolid silence when called upon, 

80 



and make no response of any kind. In still other 
cases the class smile or giggle when several have 
been called upon and have failed to recite, thus tak- 
ing the failure as a joke. 

Of course such a lack of standards proclaims 
the previous teaching to have been weak and bun- 
gling. It shows the effects of a teacher without 
standards or skill. But the immediate question is 
how to remedy such an evil situation when one 
finds it existing in a school. 

It is probable that low standards come as often 
from work which is too difficult or too great in 
amount as from any other source. If the child 
fails to understand the lesson, or has not had time 
to master it, he cannot recite, however much he 
may desire to. All that is left for him is to de- 
cline when called upon. He may be chagrined at 
first over his failure, but if failure follows failure, 
he soon ceases to care, when unable to recite. 
The remedy suggests itself at once; assign lessons 
which are within the child's ability, and also within 
the time available for their preparation. Then 
insist that the work be done 'and the recitation be 
made. 

If the failure comes from laziness, lack of study, 
indulgence in mischief, or any such cause, the 
remedy will be a different one. But a remedy must 
be devised and applied. No school can run suc- 
cessfully without good standards well maintained 

81 



for the recitation. The teacher who feels that the 
standards of the school are too low in this par- 
ticular should never be satisfied until the cause for 
such a condition is discovered, and worthy stand- 
ards instituted. This will be one of the hardest 
tests upon the teacher's ingenuity and skill. 

The public opinion of the school must be brought 
to take the recitation seriously. It must not be a 
cause for levity when several pupils fail. Failure 
must come to be looked forward to with apprehen- 
sion, and back upon with humiliation. And all 
this must be done without scolding and bickering. 
It must be done with great patience and good na- 
ture, but it must be done. The teacher must him- 
self have a high standard of excellence, and must 
persistently impress this upon his class. Here 
again the ideals of the teacher are contagious. 

V. A SPIRIT OF CO-OPERATION.— Much 
depends on the spirit with which class and teacher 
enter upon the recitation. If the spirit of co-opera- 
tion is lacking; if the relations between teacher 
and pupils are strained or not cordial; if the class 
look upon the recitation as a kind of game in which 
the teacher tries to corner andi catch the class, and 
the class tries to avoid being cornered and caught, 
then the recitation is certain to be a failure. 

Under skillful teaching the pupils should come to 
look forward to the recitation with pleasure and 
anticipation. It should be a time when teacher and 

82 



class work together in whole-hearted, enthusiastic 
effort, with the common aim of bringing the class 
to master more fully the matter of the lesson. 
There should be no feeling that the teacher has one 
aim and the class another aim, or that their in- 
terests are in any way antagonistic ; no feeling that 
the teacher's highest ambition is to catch pupils in 
errors, and the pupil's highest achievement to avoid 
being caught. There should be no attempt at bluf- 
fing, or covering up errors or points not understood. 
Probably the greatest factor in establishing and 
maintaining a spirit of co-operation between teacher 
and class is a deep-seated and sympathetic desire 
on the part of the teacher to be helpful. If her 
attitude is that of a friend and co-worker, and her 
criticisms and corrections are all made in the spirit 
of helping to a better understanding rather than in 
the spirit of faultfinding, this will go far toward 
establishing a spirit of co-operation in the class. 

This does not mean that the teacher shall be 
weak, and let mistakes or failures go by unnoticed. 
Weak teachers are never liked or respected. It 
only means that the teacher, 'in making corrections 
or calling attention to failures, shall manifest the 
spirit of a helper and not of a faultfinder. It means 
that no matter how many times a teacher may 
have to correct or even punish a pupil, her attitude 
toward the pupil will still be cordial and friendly. 
There are many persons who cannot correct a fault 

83 



without having some enmity arise toward the one 
corrected. But what the teacher needs is to be able 
to correct, rebuke or punish and at the same time 
keep the heart warm toward the wrongdoer. This 
will not only secure better results from the correc- 
tions, but will also foster the spirit of helpfulness 
and co-operation between teacher and school. 

Finally, the class should be brought to see that 
the school is their school, and not the teacher's 
school or the board's school. They should realize 
that failure or low achievement is their loss, and 
not the teacher's loss. They should feel that their 
interests and those of the teacher, the board, and 
the taxpayers who support the school are all com- 
mon interests, and that only as the pupils do their 
part will the interests of all be conserved. 

EXERCISES. 

1. What forms of distraction do you find most 
common in your school? What plans are you try- 
ing as a remedy? 

2. Are the physical conditions of your school, 
such as light, heat, and ventilation, satisfactory? 
If not, what needs to be done? Have you any chil- 
dren in your school with defective sight or hearing? 
With adenoid growths in the nasal passages caus- 
ing them to breathe through the mouth? 

3. Do you find it possible to prepare for each 
lesson specifically from day to day? If not, why 
do you find it impossible? 

4. Do you find teaching particularly trying on 

84 



your general health or your nerves ? Do you worry 
over your work or dream about it nights ? Are you 
using any special care to keep your health good 
while teaching? Explain. 

5. Do you find a low standard of preparation 
and reciting in your school? If so, what plans are 
you trying to set a higher standard ? How are you 
succeeding? 

6. Do you enjoy teaching school? Do your pu- 
pils seem to like to go to school? 

7. Do you find any of the spirit described in 
the chapter causing pupils to be resentful and an- 
tagonistic when corrected? If so, have you found 
any way of curing this spirit? Explain, 

8. What conditions other than those discussed 
in the chapter have you found tending to help or 
hinder in the recitation? Explain these fully. 

9. What seems to you to be the hardest thing 
about making your recitations a success? Have 
you a remedy for the difficulties? 

10. Are there any points made in the chapter 
which seem to you impracticable in your school? 
If so, explain fully. 



85 



V. 

THE ASSIGNMENT OF THE LESSON. 

Upon the proper assignment of the lesson de- 
pends much of the success of the recitation, and 
also much of the pupils' progress in learning how 
to study. The assignment of the lesson thus be- 
comes one of the most important duties of the reci- 
tation period. Too many times this is left until 
the very close of the class hour, when there is no 
time left for proper assignment, and the teacher can 
only say, "Take the next four pages," or "Work 
the next twenty problems." 

We forget that children do not understand how 
to go to work at the lesson as we know how. The 
result is that they come back to the next recitation 
listless and uninterested, with the lesson not pre- 
pared. Or, it may happen that the less timid ones, 
when they come to study tHe lesson, call upon the 
teacher to show them how to go to work. The 
teacher has then to take time needed for other 
things to show different individuals what should 
have been presented to the entire class when the 
lesson was assigned. Such a method is comparable 
with giving a set of tools into the hands of novices 

87 



who do not know how to use them, and then, with- 
out any instruction in the use of the tools, expecting 
them to turn out good work, without loss of time. 

Little children are unfamiliar with books, para- 
graphs, outlines, divisions and subdivisions of sub- 
jects. They hardly know even how to "gather 
thought" from a printed page, and yet we expect 
them to "get their lesson" without being shown how 
to go at it. Much time is lost in this way, and 
many children are discouraged in their work and 
caused to dislike going to school. 

The Germans far excel us in this feature of their 
school work. No class of German children are ever 
sent to their seats with the simple direction to 
take so many pages in advance. Teacher and class 
together go over the next lesson, the teacher calling 
the attention of the class to the points of the les- 
son, asking them to hunt out subdivisions, etc., and 
instructing them how to prepare the lesson. And 
the class, having this necessary help are able to 
prepare their lesson better and recite it better than 
the American children of the same age. 

There are three chief reasons why teachers do 
not give more attention to the assignment of the 
lesson: (i) Lack of time, (2) failure themselves 
to prepare the lesson in advance so as to be able 
to assign it, and (3) lack of understanding of 
proper methods of study. 

Lack of time is not an adequate excuse for fail- 

88 



nre properly to assign the lesson. If there is but 
fifteen minutes for the recitation, all the more rea- 
son why this time should be used to the best ad- 
vantage for the pupils. If one-third of this time 
should be taken for the assignment of the next les- 
son (and this is usually not too large a proportion 
in elementary classes), then this much time should 
be taken. And, besides, if the lesson is well as- 
signed, so that it is better understood and prepared 
by the class, more can be accomplished in ten min- 
utes of actual reciting than in fifteen under the 
old method. 

It may sometimes be advisable to assign the 
advance lesson at the beginning of the recitation, 
but usually it is better to wait until the close ; for 
then the connection between the present lesson 
and the next can better be brought out 

Failure to look ahead in the text book and be- 
come familiar with the next lesson renders it im- 
possible properly to make the assignment. The 
teacher must know the scope of the lesson, its 
chief points, and the main difficulties it will pre- 
sent to the class. How often teachers are obliged 
to say to an unprepared class : "I did not realize 
how hard that lesson was, or I would not have 
assigned so much." Or, "That lesson was longer 
than I intended." All of which is a confession 
that the teacher was unprepared to make the as- 
signment properly. It is true that the teacher is 



very busy, and has many lessons to prepare, but, 
on the other hand, the teacher who keeps a day 
ahead of the class in her preparation will find that 
it abundantly pays in the greater mastery of her 
subject and the time saved in reviewing it pre- 
paratory to the recitation. This is not time lost, 
it is time saved. 

The young teacher's lack of knowledge of the 
principles underlying the art of study is a more 
serious matter, and a (difficulty harder to overcome. 
Every teacher should make a special study of the 
psychology of attention and interest. She should 
also come to know how the mind naturally ap- 
proaches any new subject, first securing a synthetic 
or bird's-eye view of it as a whole; how next it 
analyses it into its elements; and how finally it 
thinks them together, or synthesizes them, into a 
new and better-understood whole. 

There may, of course, be some lessons which 
can properly be assigned in a moment by telling 
the class how much to take in advance. This is 
true of lessons which are only a continuation of 
matter with which the class are already somewhat 
familiar, which they know how to study, and which 
contains no special difficulties. For example, spell- 
ing lessons which present no new difficulties or 
especially hard words ; arithmetic lessons contain- 
ing practice problems intended for drill instead of 
introducing new topics ; grammar lessons consist- 

90 



ing of applications of principles or rules already 
mastered. But all lessons which are built upon a 
logical outline, or contain new or difficult prin- 
ciples, or involve especial difficulties of any kind 
should be assigned carefully and with sufficient de- 
tail to make sure that the class know how to go 
at work in preparing the lesson without loss of 
time and interest. 

It is necessary, however, to observe a caution 
in this connection. There is some danger of as- 
signing lessons in such a way as to render too 
much help, and thus relieve the pupil of the neces- 
sity of mastering it for himself. It is difficult to 
say whether the mistake of helping too much in 
the assignment, or not helping enough is the more 
serious. The teacher must know his class and his 
text book, and then use the best judgment he has 
in making just such suggestions as will result in 
the best effort and mastery by the pupils without 
robbing them of the necessity for work. 

The following are the chief points to be observed 
in assigning the lesson : 

I. Go over the lesson with the class in such 
a way as to give them a bird's-eye view of the 
whole, a general idea of what the entire lesson is 
about, or what it is meant to teach. Sometimes 
this can best be done with the books open in the 
hands of the pupils, the teacher calling attention 
to the topics treated. Occasionally the teacher may 

91 



herself state the aim or scope of the lesson with- 
out the use of the text. Getting this synthetic 
view of the lesson enables the pupil to go at its 
study with better intelligence, and also helps him 
better to understand the relation of the separate 
parts to the lesson as a whole. In this bird's-eye 
view of the lesson its relation to the lesson just 
recited, or other previous lessons should be brought 
out so as to unite the separate lessons into a con- 
tinuous view of the 51^3] ect. 

2. Suggestions should be given as to the anal- 
ysis of the lesson into its diflFerent topics. If the 
text uses a system of numerals in designating the 
points, the pupils should form the habit of using 
these in studying the lesson. For example, finding 
/, they should look for //, ///, etc., thus getting 
the main heads. Under these main topic numerals 
will often be found a series of paragraphs numbered 
/, 2. 5, etc., indicating tJie different topics under 
each head. The system may even extend to sub-topics 
lettered a, h, c, etc. The pupil should early learn 
to look for and make use of these helps in the 
analysis of the lesson. And even when the author 
does not introduce any such system of numbering 
he still follows some outline more or less logically 
arranged. No better training in analysis, and no 
better method of mastering a lesson can be found 
than for the pupil himself to make a written out- 
line of the lesson, using such a system of num- 

92 



bering- the topics and sub-topics as that suggested 
above. 

3. Children should be taught to make a final 
summary, or synthesis, of the lesson after they 
have analyzed it into its separate points. Of course 
a large proportion of the details learned and re- 
cited in any lesson will finally be forgotten. But 
this does not mean that such details were unneces- 
sary. It rather means that their part was to help 
in bringing out the few main facts or points and 
making them clear. For most lessons can be re- 
duced to a few chief points. These are the ones 
to be remembered and used in further learning. 
It is these important points which the pupil should 
sumrnarize and fix in his memory and understand- 
ing as the final act in preparing the lesson. Not 
to do this is to fail to reap the best results from 
the work put upon the lesson, for these more im- 
portant points are lost almost as readily as the 
less important details unless they are emphasized 
in some such way as has been suggested. 

It is of course not meant that this summary of 
points should be worked out by the teacher when 
the lesson is being assigned. That is for the pu- 
pils to do as a result of their analysis of the les- 
son. But the teacher should specifically call at- 
tention to the necessity for such a summary until 
the habit is so fixed that the pupils follow this 
method of study without further direction. The 

93 



pupil's summary of the lesson should be tested in 
the recitation just as much as his analysis of the 
facts of the lesson. This is done by few teachers. 

4. Particularly difficult points, or points of im- 
portance as a basis for later work should be espe- 
cially emphasized in the assignment of the lesson. 
This will go far toward saving the fatal weak- 
ness on fundamental points which is shown in 
later work by so many pupils. Not having been 
over the ground beforehand therefore not realizing 
the importance or difficulty of the critical points 
in a subject, the pupils must of necessity be largely 
dependent on the teacher for such suggestions. 

5. Pupils need to be taught to look up and 
come to understand the allusions and various ref- 
erences often used in history, reading, or other 
lessons. The younger pupils will often have to 
be shown how to do this. Therefore such points 
should be referred to in making the assignment, 
and any necessary directions should be given. 

6. Not infrequently new or unusual words or 
phrases are encountered by pupils in preparing 
their lessons, and they are hampered in their study 
by failing to understand the new terms. The 
teacher, knowing his pupils, should be able to an- 
ticipate any trouble of this kind, and give such 
explanations or help as may be necessary when as- 
signing the lesson. 

7. In case written work is to constitute a part 

94 



of the preparation, the directions governing what 
is to be done should be so clear and explicit that 
there is no possibility of their not being under- 
stood, and the teacher being interrupted next day 
to explain to members of the class. Much time 
could be saved for both teacher and pupils, and 
many distractions prevented from disturbing reci- 
tations if this simple direction was followed. 

8. If the principles suggested above are fol- 
lowed in assigning lessons, there will be Uttle ex- 
cuse for a pupil's forgetting the assignment. It 
will therefore be a safe rule not to repeat assign- 
ments for the benefit of careless or inattentive pu- 
pils. The teacher who will refuse to be inter- 
rupted during recitation hours to tell pupils what 
the lesson is, but who will reassign the lesson for 
the pupil at recess time, or after school, will very 
soon find all such troubles vanish, and will at 
the same time be giving her pupils valuable and 
necessary training in attention and memory. 

EXERCISES. 

1, How many times within the past week have 
you been asked by pupils to tell them what thfe 
lesson was after you had assigned it? So far as 
you can judge, what were the reasons they did not 
know? 

2. Write ten or fifteen lines giving your opin- 
ion of the statement in the text, "Lack of time is 
not an adequate excuse for failure properly to 
assign the lesson." 

95 



3- Do you find any trouble in keeping the les- 
sons looked over a day ahead so that you are 
familiar with them when you come to assign them? 
If not, how do you manage it? If you do find 
trouble in thus keeping ahead of the class, what 
do you do about it? 

4. Have you assigned any lesson recently which 
you thought required only that you tell the class 
how much or how far to take? If so, state fully 
what the lesson was, and why it could properly be 
assigned so briefly. 

5. Write out in full*detail just what you did in 
assigning some recent lesson. Give the subject, 
name of the text book, the pages assigned, and 
tell about how much time it required for the as- 
signment. 

6. Select some lesson you will soon reach in 
your assignments, and write out (i) the points 
you will bring out in the preliminary synthesis or 
bird's-eye view; (2) the points the class should 
work out in their analysis of the lesson; and (3) 
the points which the class should fix upon as a 
final summary of the lesson. 

7. Mention the points of this chapter which 
have helped you most, and tell how they have 
modified your teaching. 

8. Are there any points in the chapter which 
seem to you impossible to put into practice? If 
so, tell what they are, and why they will not work. 

9. Have you found any instances recently in 
your work in which pupils were unable to go on 
with the preparation of the lesson because they 
did not understand how to go to work? If so, 

96 



tell how the difficulty could have been obviated by 
more careful assignment. 

lo. Name and discuss briefly ten suggestions 
received from this booklet which have been of 
especial help to you. 



97 



n. 



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One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



.25 t9', 



